Triple Swap
by Pandapika
Summary: This is the spin-off for my other Hetalia Fanfic, Genderswapped Nations :D Three friends, each with a secret background which is unknown to all, even them. But when fate brings these backgrounds to them, they decide to study farther than their own good.
1. Your Completely Normal Fans

**Hi, everyone! It's been a while, hasn't it? **

**Well, this is the spinoff. And if you're reading this before you read the original story, 'Genderswapped Nations' , then I suggest you read the original first and come back to this one after you're done.**

**Anyway, if you didn't already know, here's the main logic of this all; This happens five years from now, in the year 2017 (That does not mean the characters are entitled to jetpacks or anything stupid like that), the original gender swaps (Ariana, Mattie, etc.) have aged (Duh) and they will continue to age until they hit their counterpart's human age, and then they will stop and be immortal like their counterparts. Oh, and remember Ariana's black magic in the last story? Well, the side effects still count, even though most of the originals aren't going to be featured. Just sayin' :D**

**So, to keep you from getting bored and leaving, I'll start now :3**

"Guess what I found while I was looking through the book store today?" Edwina asked her friends.

"I don't know, what?" Tora asked.

"The manga section!" Edwina exclaimed.

"No way!" Raelyn vindicated. "I've been searching for that for two years!"

"Yeah, and I bought one to add to our collection," Edwina said. She held up a plastic bag, reached her hand in, and shortly after emerged holding a volume of Fullmetal Alchemist.

"Can I read it first?" Raelyn questioned rapidly.

"No, because you haven't returned my copy of Soul Eater volume 1 yet," Edwina said. "Give it back, and then I'll loan you this."

"But I'm only at the second chapter right now!" Raelyn complained. "C'mon, please?"

"No! And now I'm going to let Tora borrow it first, since you're being so whiny about it," Edwina said. She handed the manga to Tora.

"Hold on, I think you should read it first," Tora denied. "I don't want to take a long time reading it and keep it away from Raelyn when she finishes Soul Eater."

"Yay!" Raelyn exclaimed. "At least Tora's being nice!"

"Who said I was being mean?" Edwina questioned.

Tora, Edwina, and Raelyn are all really into anime and manga. But they don't have the status of 'weeaboo'. They just collect manga and watch anime. That's it. Okay? Anyway, the three of them have been friends for six years now, and have always had this interest. Between the three of them, they've voted their favorite manga and anime as Hetalia.

As Edwina and Raelyn kept going on about the manga, neither of them especially angry, Tora's mother entered the room. "Tonya, Raelyn's mom is here to pick her up," Her mom informed.

"Mom, I told you to call me Tora," the girl said.

"Oh, okay, Tora, will-do," her mom said, before leaving the room.

Tora's real name is Tonya, but Tora doesn't like that name very much, so she asked Edwina and Raelyn to make up a nickname for her one day. Of course, because of their manga/anime interest, they came up with the idea to call her Tora , the Japanese word for tiger, since it shares the first two letters and just sounds better on her. Tora liked this very much and told her parents to call her Tora from then on, but sometimes her mom forgot and called her Tonya instead.

Tora nudged Raelyn's arm as she went on about Edwina's kitten and how stupid it is. "Hey, your mom's here," Tora said softly.

Raelyn turned around. "Wow, really? It seems like I just got here."

"You've been here since ten," Tora informed. "Edwina's the one who just got here."

"Yeah, you're right," Raelyn said. "Well, see you both later!" With that, the small girl walked over the exit of Tora's bedroom and opened the door, before running off and leaping down the staircase leading down to the foyer by the sounds of it.

A few seconds passed, before Edwina picked up a conversation with Tora. "So, what are you reading right now, again?" she asked.

"I'm re-reading Haruhi Suzumiya. I'm halfway through volume one so far," Tora answered.

Edwina nodded. "I see."

"Why'd you want to know?" Tora asked curiously.

"Well, I woke up this morning and wanted to read Hetalia, but I couldn't find any of the volumes on the bookshelf, so I was wondering if you had borrowed them and I had forgot," Edwina explained. "But since you're reading Haruhi, it has to be Raelyn."

She knows it was Raelyn because the three of them share a manga library at Edwina's house, since her's is the biggest. In the huge room that Edwina's library occupies, their manga collection gets its very own shelf in the far left corner. It's a very small shelf and they often find themselves stacking inexpensive mangas they didn't really enjoy on top of the shelf, causing them to fall off sometimes, but they don't really care; so long as they aren't piled up like columns and at risk of falling over. Edwina's the self-proclaimed librarian of this shelf, and has a very well organized directory of which books the three of them borrow. As it seems right now, Tora has borrowed Haruhi Suzumiya volume one, Raelyn has borrowed Soul Eater volume one (and has it overdue), and Edwina has borrowed an unspecified volume of Black Butler. Unspecified, because the book belongs to Edwina and Edwina knows exactly where it is at all times.

"That would explain why she's taking so long reading Soul Eater…" Tora doted.

"Yeah; even considering how slowly she reads, she should at least be three chapters in right now," Edwina said.

"Well, she's already left," Tora said, looking out her bedroom window and not seeing the silver SUV belonging to Raelyn's mother.

"I know," Edwina said. "I'll need to voice chat with her tonight. Hey, Tora, would you mind getting on too so that I have a bit of backup. You know, just in case she starts freaking out and crying because she starts to think we don't like her anymore?"

"Okay," Tora said. "The only other thing I have to do today is straighten up my room a bit because Felina's coming over later."

"Great, thanks," Edwina said with a smile.

Before long, Tora's mom came to the room again and said that Edwina's mom had come to pick her up as well, and Tora was left with her mom's reminder that Felina would be there shortly and her room better look nice.

Tora inspected her room; it wasn't that dirty, but it wasn't as tidy and organized as Edwina's room. But she did see that there empty cups and bowls lying around, so she piled all of them up in her arms precariously and left the room with them.

She cautiously made her way down the stairs, careful not to topple the leaning tower of dishes. She gave off a sigh of relief when she finally got to the bottom, and then went straight to the kitchen. When there, she laid the dishes on the counter and one-by-one put them into the dishwasher. Afterwards, she wiped the sweat off of her forehead and dashed upstairs and into her room, before slamming the door shut behind her (Not really slamming it, just closing it roughly).

Her room was completely cleared as far as she could see now. That being taken out of the way, Tora went over to the mirror in the room and inspected herself. Her medium-length brown hair looked okay, but she brushed it anyway. Then, as if on cue directly after Tora finished brushing her hair, Felina opened her bedroom door.

"Hey, Tonya, what's up?" the girl greeted.

"Ah, nothing," Tora replied nervously.

Felina had been Tora's friend since preschool, even if they didn't meet there. Tora met her because their mothers were old friends from high school and visited each other every Thursday. And since they both had daughters around the same age, they got the idea that bringing their daughters with them would be a good idea. Ever since the first time Felina's mother brought her to Tora's house, they've been friends, even if Tora's really shy and nervous and Felina's lively and social. And if you didn't already notice, Felina doesn't call her Tora.

Felina didn't respond for a while, and Tora started getting worried she had said the wrong thing to her, but then Felina finally questioned while pointing behind Tora, "Hey, what's that?"

"What do you-?" Tora cut herself off with a gasp. Sitting on the nightstand of her bed was the Haruhi Suzumiya manga she was reading. Tora froze, before she shook her head rapidly, saying, 'nothing' over and over and sliding the manga into one of her nightstand's drawers.

Tora was sort of to herself about her anime and manga. Around Felina, she hides all of her manga, turns off her computer as to hide the bright Hetalia desktop background, and even switches her iPod (Which has J-Pop and Vocaloid galore) with her mom's (which has classic rock like Aerosmith and stuff like that) to ensure her childhood friend doesn't ask any questions about it. However, it seems that this time, her Haruhi Suzumiya manga has made it past the radar.

Felina walked behind Tora nonchalantly and took the manga out from the nightstand. "'The Melon-cha-lee of Har-uh -hi Suz-um-my-ah'? What the heck is that?" she said, absolutely butchering the title.

"_I was afraid this was going to happen," _Tora thought helplessly. _"Now what? She sees it, and she's waiting for me to tell her what it is!" _"Uhh…" Tora said, unsure of herself. "It's the book I'm reading right now," she said, keeping the word 'manga' away from her lips.

"What's wrong with it?" Felina asked. "It's all backwards and stuff."

Tora just covered her eyes and freaked out silently, hoping that this was a dream or something so she wouldn't have to explain everything.

"What's an SOS Brigade?" Felina asked.

"_Ah, no, she's actually looking in it!" _Tora cried to herself. _"Well, at least she didn't flip to any of the pages with Mikuru wearing-"_

"What the heck are Playboy bunnies doing in this book?" Felina questioned.

"_-Skimpy clothing…" _Tora finished sadly. Finally, she brought her hands off of her eyes. "It's a romance-based visual novel! It's all messed up because of a printing mistake!" she lied loudly.

"Well, at least it's not Twilight," Felina said, before laughing at her joke and slipping the manga safely back into the nightstand.

Tora laughed weakly, as she didn't find the billionth Twilight joke ever made especially funny after that dreadful ordeal.

"So anyway, Tonya, you have your cell phone, right?" Felina asked.

"Yeah," Tora said, pulling out her black-and silver flip phone. "But just so you know, I got in trouble last week when you told me to prank call a sex hotline."

"No, it's not that! Calm down, will you?" Felina said. "I saw something on TV, and it says if you text the word 'Love' and your name to this certain number, it tells you what celebrity you're meant for! You should try it; I did that earlier, and it said I'm meant for that guy from the Hunger Games movies! You watched those, right?"

Tora nodded. "But you know those 'call-and-we'll-tell-you-X' things are stupid and fake, right?"

"No, they aren't!" Felina disagreed.

"Whatever you say, I guess. What's the number?" Tora asked, never being good at arguing.

"I have it written here," Felina said. She brought a tiny piece of paper from her pocket, and handed it to Tora, who in turn straightened it out and read the number.

"Okay, then; 'Love', 'Tonya', to…" Tora's voice trailed off as she dialed the number.

A few moments later, she got a text, but before she could read it, Felina grabbed her phone and read it for herself. "Omigod, you got that guy from the Hunger Games, too!" she exclaimed. "Now we have to fight over him!"

"Wait, wha-?" Tora started, before Felina pushed her over and laughed.

"Nyooo, he'sh mai mayun!" Felina said in an odd voice.

Tora closed her eyes, turned her head, and covered her face, expecting a barrage of light slaps, which soon came. "C'mon Tonya, _do_ something! _Say_ something! Protect yo' mayun!" Felina demanded playfully.

"Ah… No, he's my man?" Tora said awkwardly.

"No, you have to do it in a weird voice, like mine," Felina said. "Nyooo, mai mayun!"

"Nyo, he'sh mai mayun…" Tora said under her breath.

"Louder," Felina commanded.

"Nyo, he'sh mai mayun," Tora said a bit louder.

"C'mon, you can do better than that!" Felina cried. "Who's man is it?!"

"Mai mayun!" Tora finally shouted. Almost directly after, her mom called, "Tora, say goodbye to Felina!"

"See ya," Felina said as she waved and eventually left.

Soon after, Tora got up and took her laptop out from under her bed. She immediately noticed she was getting an AIM voice chat request from 'MangaOverload9119', which was Edwina's screen name. She accepted it, and said, "Hey, Edwina."

"Glad to see you're early too, Tora," She heard Edwina say from her computer. "I was just about to call Raelyn and tell her to get on AIM."

"Okay, so should I wait a little longer?" Tora asked.

"Yeah, but don't log off or anything," Edwina responded.

A little longer later, 'Meowzies177' (Raelyn) logged on and joined the chat. "What's up?" she asked.

"Raelyn, where are all my Hetalia mangas?" Edwina asked calmly.

"I don't know, what'd you do with them?" the girl responded.

"I didn't do anything, and neither did Tora," Edwina said. "That means it must've been you."

"What? Why are you blaming me?" Raelyn cried. "Does this mean you don't like me anymore?"

Exactly as Edwina had thought. "No, we still like you. We just want to know where our manga is," Tora comforted.

"Raelyn, you're fourteen, stop acting like a baby," Edwina said. "Just tell the truth and tell me where the mangas are."

Tora could hear Raelyn sniveling. "I swear, I didn't take them," she said.

"Okay, if you're so upset about it, I guess you're not guilty," Edwina said. "Tora, are you sure you didn't borrow them without checking them out?"

"Not all at once, I only check out books in a series one by one," Tora answered.

"Ah, okay," Edwina said. "Well, I guess they'll turn up eventually."

"I hope you find them soon!" Raelyn said, excited the blame wasn't on her. "I've actually wanted to read Hetalia again, too."

"You know, so have I," Tora said.

"Yeah, and the only reason I wanted to read them this morning was because I had a dream about Hetalia that was really weird," Edwina said.

"About what?" Tora asked.

"I forget what it was about, I just remember it was Hetalia-related," Edwina replied.

"Hey, I had a dream about that last night, too," Raelyn said.

"Me too," Tora said. "I'm kind of creeped out now."

"That is really peculiar, that we all had a dream we can't remember that has to do with Hetalia," Edwina said. Just then, Tora heard Edwina's mother's voice, silent and incoherent. "Oh, hey, my mom told me to remind you to remind your parents to bring you two to my house at six tomorrow so we can have a sleepover. Y'know, because of our sightseeing tour to DC on Saturday?"

"Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that," Raelyn said. "Thanks for reminding me."

"It was nothing," Edwina said. "Well, I need to go now. Bye!" Then, MangaOverload1991 logged off.

"Good-bye!" Raelyn called, signing off as well.

Tora nodded, and shut down her laptop, sliding it under her bed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

That night, Tora had an odd dream. Basically, it was like Ao Oni, except she and her friends were filling the rolls with the one character being left out being Takeshi. Nobody died, so at the end, the monster came out and found them all and then four-wheelers fell from the ceiling and crushed the three of them and then the monster started doing the Macarena. Tora thought it was funny; every time a character has a dream in manga or anime, it's always relevant to the plot. And using that logic, they were destined to get locked in a haunted house at DC on Saturday, get chased down by a monster, get crushed by four-wheelers, and, if they weren't unconscious or dead, watch a giant purple/indigo thing with huge eyes dancing for eternity. Oh, joy.

She woke up at about ten AM to one of her favorite bits of Engrish ever as Edwina's ringtone; 'Herro, every-nyan. How ah yuu? Fine, sank you.' She answered it, and responded with an "Oh mai gah!".

Edwina laughed over the phone, and said, "I'm so glad you agreed to do that whenever I call you instead of saying 'hello'! It always makes my day!"

"So, what's up?" Tora asked.

"I wanted to wake you up so you wouldn't forget about the sleepover at six. You remembered, right?" Edwina verified.

"Yeah," Tora replied. "Is Raelyn up yet?"

"I called you first, so… no," Edwina replied.

"Hey, just wondering so this dream sharing thing doesn't get any creepier," Tora said, "what'd you dream about last night?"

"I dreamt that Harry Potter fell in a ditch and kept pressing a Life Alert button, and then got hit by some random Southern guy in a pickup truck," Edwina answered. "Why, what'd you dream about?"

"Well.." Tora began.

**I suck for ending it here! Whatever, though.**

**I hope you liked the first chapter! :D I tried to add a lot of funny stuff to keep it from being as boring to read as the first couple chapters in Genderswapped Nations. I'd say I did pretty well.**

**By the way, the Harry Potter thing is an inside joke between my sister and I, so I'll explain so it'll be funny for everyone, not just us:**

**Basically, my sister is reading Harry Potter for the first time ever. I keep asking her, 'Has he gotten to Hogwarts yet?' and for two weeks she's always said no. So eventually, I finally said, "Jeez? What's taking him so long? Did he run out of socks? Or maybe he can't find his wizard sandals? No, wait, I've got it; He must've fallen in a ditch and can't get up! That's why it's taking so long!" And then on a separate occasion, she was going on about how in her Agriculture class, the teacher always has country music playing. So I said, "All of those songs are about something stupid. Like, here's one; I… drove my truck into a ditch to-day… I… hit-some-stupid-kid-in-the-ditch to-day…"**

**So, if you aren't familiar with how I end chapters, usually I end them like this: I promise I'll get the next chapter written soon, so see ya! :3**

**The important part is the cat face. Without that, it's an epic cliffhanger.**

…

**Oh, wait! It wasn't at the official end! I better hurry up and type it before I leave my fans waiting! **

**[Crisis Averted] :3**


	2. New Discoveries Discovered

It was five forty-five PM, and Edwina had begun waiting for her friends to arrive. Her caramel/dirty blonde hair was neatly brushed and styled, and her glasses were newly-polished. She didn't want to look like she's been in bed all day front of her friends, even if that was the case.

Her eyes grew with excitement as she saw the sleek black car belonging to Tora's mother park in her house's enormous parking lot.

It was easy to tell that Edwina's parents were above middle class. Not rich, per say, but they had more money than most, if not all, of the people living around them. Her house was pretty large, and their library was as well, even though the library was already covered in the previous chapter. As for Edwina's room, her parents spoiled her with the flat screen HD TV on her wall, the queen size bed with silky covers, and the closet full of clothing. Since she was an only child, she had all of these luxuries to herself.

It didn't take long until there was a knock at Edwina's bedroom door. When she opened it, Tora was standing there. "Hello, Edwina," she greeted. "I hope you don't mind that I'm kind of early."

"Of course not," Edwina replied. "In fact, I'm glad. I was starting to get bored."

"So, about your weird dream," Edwina started later. "I drew a little comic of it, if you want to see."

"Sure," Tora agreed. Edwina nodded, and got out her notebook.

The comic illustrated how the three of them found the house in DC, and how Raelyn quoted the beginning of Ao Oni before they went in. But just as they walked in, Tora gained an odd expression.

"What's up?" Edwina asked.

"It's just…" Tora dwelled for the right words. "You drew us in a way that kind of makes us look like the Baltics, is all."

Edwina observed her comic. "Kind of," she said. "But whatever; it's not really about the animation style, it's more about the plot. Keep reading."

Edwina watched as Tora scanned her eyes over each panel where the three of them ventured farther into the house together. That was the thing about Ao Oni that confused the three of them; why did they split up? Edwina saw the look in Tora's eyes as the monster appeared in the comic, drawn with detail (except in his you-know-where area). The three of them ran away until they were trapped in the library. And just when the monster's shadow loomed over them, a crash sounded from the ceiling, and four wheelers fell on them. They crushed the girls, leaving them pinned underneath, bloody. The monster observed them for some time, before starting to dance. Edwina exchanged glances with Tora, who shrugged and looked back.

'Wow!" Tora exclaimed, laughing. "That was ridiculous!"

"That's how the dream went, so I drew it accordingly," Edwina said with a grin.

A few seconds later, Edwina's doorbell rang. Edwina's mother answered the door, and soon enough, Raelyn was in Edwina's room with them. "Hey, you two," she greeted.

"Hi, Raelyn, you should check out my comic," Edwina suggested, but Raelyn didn't seem interested, which was odd, since usually Raelyn would be all over her to see her artwork, since she was the best anime drawer there. She seemed somewhat vacant, and her indigo-colored eyes didn't seem as cheerful as her greeting had seemed. Even her usual wild short curly hair looked depressed. "Is something wrong…?" Edwina inquired, brushing hair away from Raelyn's eyes to see her eyes better, and noticed her eyes were welling with tears.

"I had a bad dream," Raelyn answered.

"A bad dream?" Edwina asked, sounding confused. "Don't you usually shrug those off?"

"No, it was worse than any other dream I've ever had," Raelyn murmured solemnly.

Raelyn was known to have the occasional nightmare. Usually it was something stupid that would scare her, like maybe she woke up to see someone in her room that disappeared soon after, or a cat was stalking her. But this time, it seemed to be far more serious than any of her previous dreams.

"What was it about?" Edwina queried reluctantly, not wanting to further upset the girl.

"Well, I dreamt we were having a sleepover and this tall woman appeared and she was smiling and it looked really creepy and she had something shiny in her hands and then she grabbed Tora up by the hair and she didn't wake up and then we teleported, and then we were in this huge house and it was snowing and that woman was still there and smiling and she told us to clean her clothes!" Raelyn explained rapidly. "I don't get it!"

This begged to be drawn, but that would probably scare Raelyn further if drawn right now. "Eh…" Edwina muttered, unsure how to respond now. Obviously the dream meant something further that she couldn't decipher. Maybe it had something to do with Tora's. But then again, if it had something to do with Tora's, that means it would have to be like her dream as well. That means Harry Potter should be dead in a ditch, and since Raelyn left that detail out if it had been there, it was probably just something random.

"Well…" Edwina dwelled. "Don't worry about it. For now, you should really see the comic. It's pretty funny; it's about the dream Tora had last night."

Raelyn sniffled. "O-okay…" she stammered, reaching with shaky hands for the notebook.

About a minute into reading it, Raelyn dropped it and fell to the floor, mumbling on about her nightmare again. Edwina, shocked, picked up the comic and looked over it. She noticed a scene with all three of them standing in the library, speaking amongst themselves; in this particular panel, Raelyn was crying to go home and Edwina was adjusting her glasses, causing a glare. Then, Edwina dropped it as well, and if this was in anime form, a Beam of Enlightenment would be in the background and her glasses would be totally white.

Their resemblance to the Baltics was uncanny in this panel, not to mention in the rest of the comic. This was unusual, because usually they aren't drawn based after these characters. Even then, you could swear that the three of them looked like they belonged in a Hetalia manga.

"I understand…" Edwina mumbled. "The dream… This is…" Edwina went off, before abruptly shouting, "Tora!'

"Uh, yeah! What's up?" Tora responded, surprised as she had been sucked into the moment.

"In DC tomorrow… We need to look out for anyone who even remotely looks like a Hetalia character. Because if my thoughts are right, then we could be more than just three teenage anime and manga fans," Edwina said.

"Will-do, I guess," Tora agreed reluctantly. Edwina could easily hear the confusion in Tora's voice.

Edwina looked to Raelyn again, seeing she had gotten to her senses. "Well… that kind of makes me excited."

"Listen," Edwina said, smiling. "Why don't we have fun before nine thirty, when my mom will come up and tell us to go to bed? Let's try not to let this ruin our night."

"Sure, I'd love to have some fun!" Raelyn agreed.

"Okay, that'd be great; I'm kind of spacey after that. I need to get my mind off of it," Tora said.

For the next two and a half hours or so, the three girls listened to music and all read manga. They all tried to erase the thoughts from their minds with a nice manga reading together. And then, when their bedtime was but thirty minutes away, Edwina started to draw another comic. She held back the urge to draw Raelyn's dream, and instead drew another entry in the comic series she draws for Raelyn, titled 'Jump off a Cliff', which pretty much follows a girl who's a casual Hetalia fan and often falls into huge fan arguments online about shipping relationships. A running gag is that the girl leaves the chatrooms saying 'Screw this, I'm going to go to a (Insert anime here) chatroom instead' and then always somehow gets caught in the same chatroom. It wasn't very funny to Edwina or Tora, but Raelyn thought it was hilarious and quoted the character often.

"Edwina, girls! Time for bed!" Edwina's mom called eventually.

Tora and Raelyn had both already fallen asleep in the sleeping bags Edwina had provided them. "'Kay, mom," Edwina responded, being silent so her friends wouldn't awaken. She slipped under her covers, took out her remote, and clicked on the TV. As whatever happened to be on Comedy Central that moment popped onto the screen, Edwina yawned, removed her glasses and set them down, then covered her head with the blankets as she usually did and fell asleep, the TV humming in the background.

Edwina was standing in a huge room. It was completely black, but for some reason, she could hear a fire crackling to her right despite nothing being there. Suddenly, a window appeared directly in front of her, and Edwina looked out. She could see a tall figure walking around with a much shorter figure. Their facial expressions couldn't be seen because it was dark and snowy outside, but their heights were somewhat startling. The tall figure looked to be at least five foot seven, and the short one looked like a little kid. Edwina only knew one person who was that short. "Raelyn!" She called, but it seemed that she couldn't hear her. Edwina banged two fists on the windows, calling her name again, but the glass shattered upon first contact. By then, the two were right in front of the window, and she could see Raelyn's face perfectly, but the tall figure's still hidden.

"Oh, hello, there," the tall figure greeted, voice feminine and an accent obvious but unidentifiable. "It seems you've broken my window."

Edwina ignored the tall woman and instead faced Raelyn. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Well…" Raelyn started, sweat rolling down her face despite the weather.

She was cut off when he woman said to her, "Well, come on. We have things to do." She turned to face Edwina. "Meanwhile, you should fix the window."

"But it's not mine," Edwina vindicated.

The woman stared at her intently, her elusive eyes somehow indistinguishable but piercing right through Edwina's glasses at the same time. The woman didn't even need to speak before Edwina decided it would probably be a good idea to fix the window. As Edwina labored over the window, she could see the tall woman reaching for Raelyn's forehead, and the young girl shuddered. Her seemingly gloved hand came ever so much closer to her forehead, until…

"Edwina…" She heard a voice coax. "Wake up…"

Edwina woke up, to see her mom looming over her bedside. "Ah, good morning, mom," Edwina greeted.

"Good morning, sweetie," her mom smiled. "Get your things so we can head off soon. Your friends are already downstairs."

Edwina nodded and got out of bed. She got dressed, got the things she was going to be taking for the car trip, and then after a while, they set off.

Immediately, Edwina began drawing a comic for the dream she had last night. Since she wasn't nearly as prone to being really freaked out by nightmares as Raelyn, it wouldn't cause her any pain to draw it. Besides, the dream interested her. Who was this mysterious individual they all kept seeing? Maybe someday they'd meet her, and find out she was never a threat or a Hetalia reference at all; maybe she was a doctor or something interesting like that.

Panel by panel, she illustrated herself, trying not to base herself off of Hetalia and instead using Black Butler's style. She started off showing herself, floating in a dark vortex. Then, the window materialized, and illustrated her stepping onto a ground surface that wasn't there earlier. She approached the window, and immediately saw Raelyn and the tall woman walking towards her. She drew out her breaking of the window, and depicted how by then the figure and Raelyn were directly in front of her. She made the dream woman's text bubble wavy like a thought bubble to exemplify the accent she had. She showed herself turning directly to Raelyn and asking if she was okay, and Raelyn beginning to reply shakily with a sweat drop on her forehead, before the wavy speech bubble appeared again with the tall woman's command to fix the window. After Edwina said it wasn't hers, she showed the woman staring at her with just what seemed to be 'Scary Shiny Glasses' and an averagely-sized rounded grin. Edwina shivered in the comic, and bent over to repair the window. Meanwhile, a view of Raelyn's forehead being threatened to be pressured could be seen, while only Edwina's back could be seen while she was picking up broken glass. Edwina looked over her artwork, and nodded in approval, saying to herself, "Nice. And nobody looks like a Baltic."

It had taken a long time for Edwina to draw this comic, and by the time she had finished, they were already in DC; about thirty minutes from where they would start exploring and sightseeing; the Lincoln Memorial. Edwina, not having anything else to do, plucked out one of Raelyn's earbuds so she would read the comic. "Edwina, she's still rolling," Raelyn jokingly whined in disapproval.

"I drew a comic about the dream I had last night," Edwina explained briefly. "Do you think you could read it for me?"

"Sure, I'd love to," Raelyn agreed. She snatched the comic out of Edwina's hand, and began to read it. "This is really what you dreamt of last night?" she verified.

"Yeah, interesting, huh?" Edwina asked.

"Yeah, I love this comic already," Raelyn answered. "The style fits perfectly."

"Thank you," Edwina replied.

As Raelyn went on, her expression melted into something else. Quickly. Edwina already knew from her average speed while reading mangas that she was halfway through; around the part when the woman appeared and began to speak. Trying to make out the expression, Edwina leaned closer to her face to observe it (Raelyn didn't pay any mind to this) and was able to see what she was feeling; an odd mix between fear and what seemed to be worry. It felt so unnatural seeing this look on Raelyn, of all people. It was pretty much Tora's default expression, but on Raelyn, it didn't seem like her. It seemed like someone else to Edwina, someone she definitely recognized… Latvia. Edwina freaked out a little in her mind, and Raelyn finished the comic, giving it back to Edwina immediately. "How'd you like it?" Edwina asked hesitantly.

"It was interesting," Raelyn replied simply. Usually, she'd comment about her favorite part or about how certain characters were drawn. But this time, she didn't seem to want to.

"Raelyn, you're freaking me out," Edwina spouted finally. "Stop being so much like Latvia, its creepy."

"What do you mean?" Raelyn asked, looking down. She noticed how her legs were shaking slightly, held up her hands to compare, and saw they were both shivering all the same. "…Huh?"

"This is weird," Edwina said plainly at loss of better words.

Tora removed the headphones she had been wearing. "Huh? Hey, is that a new comic, Edwina?" she questioned.

"Yeah…?" Edwina answered, not sure exactly how to answer for some reason.

"May I read it? I just finished Haruhi Suzumiya," Tora inquired.

"Sure," Edwina agreed, handing the comic to her friend. Tora read faster than Raelyn, so Edwina guessed she would be finished reading in about a minute or so while Raelyn took around a minute and a half. So, a minute and ten seconds later, Tora handed the comic back to Edwina.

"Where'd you come up with a twisted plot like that?" Tora asked.

"I dreamt that last night," Edwina replied.

Tora froze for a bit, like she always did for some reason whenever even remotely surprised or shocked, before coming back to her senses and saying, "That's cool."

"I guess," Edwina said.

Tora glanced at Raelyn, and saw how she was shaking and looking down. Her eyes grew. "Ah…" she dwelled for a question.

"I don't know," Edwina answered in advance.

"Well, she was being treated as if she was actually Latvia when she was being shown," Tora guessed. "And the ending was pretty morbid."

"Not really, it was just her forehead," Edwina justified as best as she could.

"But putting it into a weird mindset, basically the comic said that Raelyn is the absolute female Latvia, and that somewhere someplace there's a female Russia waiting to meet her for the sole purpose of keeping her as a personal maid she can torment. And not to mention, that would mean you and I doing the same thing, so… yeah," Tora explained her thoughts, ending awkwardly because she thought maybe she spoke too much.

"I never thought about it like that," Edwina admitted. "I'm even more freaked out now."

"We can make this better," Tora hoped. "Think happy thoughts and stop worrying and smile and talk and all that stuff!"

"You're certainly one to talk about not worrying," Edwina joked. "You don't even sound like Tora right now, you sound more like Raelyn or Felina."

Tora couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, you're right," she said. "But hey, anyway, let's just talk about random stuff to bring the mood up."

"Okay, fine by me. Raelyn?" Edwina poked her small friend.

Raelyn looked up, and momentarily stopped shivering. "O-okay," she stammered.

From then on, the three of them compared people they knew to anime characters, avoiding the obvious counterparts they were.

"I can't believe I never drew lines between Felina and Poland yet," Tora said. "It seems so obvious that you'd have to be a complete idiot not to notice."

During this conversation, Raelyn seemed to regain her childish spirit, and Edwina and Tora agreed they wouldn't bring up the comic, Latvia, or the woman during their sightseeing trip. Because if they did, then all three of them would be brought down by Raelyn's resulting depressed feelings. Soon enough, they lost track of time and Edwina's father alerted them they had arrived as they went on about how one of the sixth graders at their old middle school kind of looked like Sealand.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Okay, girls, we're going to let you go around and look at whatever you want," Edwina's mom said as they had a small meeting of sorts in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

"Don't waste all of your money, Edwina. Meet us back here at around 2 'o clock. Since it's eleven right now, that gives you a good three hours," Edwina's father added. "Be careful."

"Okay, dad," Edwina agreed, leading her friends away as her parents wandered away. "So anyway, I was making up a new character for something random, and at first I was going to make her the shy quiet type and have all of her speech as "**…**", but now she's the loud type and all of her dialogue is always "0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0!"."

"That's a huge difference in personality," Tora observed. "Is the character still genuine?"

"As genuine as ever, and maybe even more so now," Edwina replied.

"I think I prefer the first character more, though," Raelyn said.

"Okay, whatever, be a troll of the past then," Edwina said jokingly, which caused all three of them to laugh.

"So where are we going first?" Tora asked.

"I don't know," Edwina confessed. "Maybe we should just wander a bit and see if we can find anything interesting."

"Or any_one_," Tora whispered to Edwina so Raelyn wouldn't hear. Edwina responded with a nod.

So, they wandered a bit, looking for anything they might want to check out. They considered one of the Smithsonian Museums, but changed their minds. Soon enough, they decided that they would visit the Washington Monument. As they waited in a line, Edwina looked around with boredom. She glanced at the woman in front of her, and noticed she was wearing an odd outfit. It wasn't very casual (or formal, for that matter), and reminded her of something she couldn't place.

Tora and Raelyn seemed to notice the woman as well. "You don't think…?" Tora asked Edwina under her breath, who in turn shook her head.

"No way," She vindicated quietly.

Suddenly, however, as if aware of the three girl's prying eyes, the woman turned around to see them. At once, they realized who this was supposed to be. Tora exchanged a look with Edwina, and Edwina said, "Your cosplay looks nice."

Yes, it seemed that this woman was wearing Hetalia cosplay. She resembled Nyotalia America greatly, only a bit younger looking. Her hair color was dead on, and her eyes twinkled the precise shading required. There was no way hair dye and contacts had any part in this extremely natural look. And then there was the Cosplay, which looked good enough to be real, definitely not made at home or by a company. This woman, without a doubt, looked like the ideal female America cosplayer.

The woman looked down at her clothes, and her eyes grew. "Oh, yeah, I'm wearing this…" she dwelled, sounding like an irresponsible child. "Thanks…?" she said.

"You're welcome," Tora said, nervousness in her tone, as usual when she talked to people she didn't know. "You look perfect."

"Y'know, I actually have somewhere to be, I just got off track," the woman said. "And let me just say…" she laughed nervously, "…you guys look nice." With that, the woman slowly backed away, before running off, shouting, "Not again!"

The girls looked at each other anxiously. "I don't think that was a cosplayer," Edwina said.

"So that means we have to be the Baltics…" Tora dwelled.

Raelyn squeaked childishly, afraid.

"Hey, c'mon, Raelyn, it's fine," Edwina comforted as best as she could. "That woman probably doesn't even exist."

"But if a female America exists, that means a female everyone exists!" Raelyn whined fearfully.

"We can't know that," Edwina said. "We need to have fun and not worry about this. We'll think about it when we get home, okay?"

"M'kay," Raelyn agreed reluctantly.

For the rest of the trip, the three of them couldn't get thoughts about the woman in line out of their heads. What was she doing there? Why did she out of nowhere say they looked 'nice'? On the outside, Edwina was acting spacey, Tora was looking down, and Raelyn was doing the same while also freaking out. They couldn't shake these thoughts, no matter how many laughs they exchanged or how many different places they traveled. Soon enough, they had to go back to the Lincoln Memorial to meet Edwina's parents.

"Hey, you all," Edwina's father greeted. "How'd you enjoy the trip?"

"Good," Edwina answered simply.

"…Okay," Edwina's mother said after pausing in shock for a bit that Edwina had used bad grammar.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Allison walked into Ariana's house, and as the entire room of people stared at her, said, "Hey, y'guys, sorry I'm late, I got distracted on my way to the airport again."

"There's no need to apologize for being late anymore," Ariana said. "After five years of having these monthly meetings, every single time you've been late; even the ones at _your_ house."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Allison agreed, laughing.

Allison was attending the monthly meeting held by other gender swaps like her. Most of them had met just about five years and a few months ago, but then they met more people like themselves. Now they all know each other and their counterparts exceedingly well.

Almost exactly five years ago, they had went into a battle with Prussia and his gender swap Gillian, whom, at the time, was being called by her middle name, Prudence. During this battle, Allison had died, but Ariana, who was England's gender swap, brought her back with black magic. As a result, if they ever died, their countries and their populations would die, as well. Now they were completely at peace, so much so that Gillian, their former enemy, was welcome to attend the meetings. When all of this happened, Allison was only twelve, so it was a lot for her at first. Now she was seventeen, and can only age two more times before she stops altogether and stays nineteen her entire life.

"What did you get distracted with this time?" Mattie, Canada's swap, asked softly.

"I wanted to check out the Washington Monument, you know, and there were these girls who freaked me out," Allison explained.

"They couldn't have been any creepier than Iscah, right?" Yiesha, China's swap, questioned.

"No, they weren't creepy like that, it was like a 'they remind me of someone' creepy," Allison denied.

"Like who?" Felicity, Italy's swap, asked with great curiosity and whimsy in her tone.

"I think they kind of looked like those Baltic guys, but I'm not really sure," Allison answered.

"Is that so?" Iscah, Russia's swap, inquired.

"Stop whatever you're planning, Iscah," Louella, Germany's swap, commanded. She's been the leader of these meetings for a while, but then everyone took charge themselves as they became more mature… or not, depending on who're you're looking at. "These might be new gender swaps. We need to be careful with this, or the public will freak and a repeat of last time might happen."

"Yes, I agree. We can't start getting crazy; that battle a few years ago was dreadful," Robynne, Austria's swap, agreed.

"I've been trying to say sorry for that for five entire years but you won't listen!" Gillian fought suddenly. "Well, I'm done! I'm going to stop apologizing all together because obviously your ears aren't worthy enough to hear my words of awesomeness!"

To explain, Gillian requested to take on Robynne one-on-one during the gender swap's battle. Robynne accepted, except Gillian cut her up until she passed out due to blood loss and pain. At the time, Robynne's entire body was covered in her own blood as well. Five years later, she's fine, of course, but Gillian still doesn't like her too much because she thinks Robynne still doesn't forgive her. She also partially takes after Prussia on that account, so even if she was forgiven, she'd still dislike Robynne.

"Please be silent, Gillian," Kierra, Japan's swap, requested. "I'm sure Robynne forgives you."

"Yes, I think we should all calm down for a bit," Elliot, Hungary's swap, said. "I don't want to think about that experience any longer."

"Now we are forgetting the subject at hand, no?" Francisca, France's swap asked. "We were talking about possible new gender swaps before we got taken away to this other subject."

"Wait, where's my little brother?" Kameron, Ukraine's swap, asked.

"I think I remember him saying he had to go to the bathroom," someone said; Allison wasn't paying attention to exactly who did.

Suddenly, scratching noises sounded in the room, and Iscah jumped up from her chair. Then, from behind her chair, Nathaniel, Belarus' swap, rose. "You've been saying no for five years, big sister…" he crowed. "You have to say yes sometime!"

"Nonononononononononono!" Iscah's rapid-fire 'no's outclassed the occasional ones Allison would shoot during a tantrum tremendously. With that, Iscah sped into one of the back rooms of Ariana's house, with Nathaniel sprinting behind her, chanting 'marry me marry me marry me marry me…'.

"Hey, don't go back there!" Ariana demanded. "England likes to hide in the very back rooms of the house when you all come over!" Soon enough, the gender swaps could hear England's voice echoing from the corridor from which Iscah and Nathaniel had gone.

"What the-?" They heard the country exclaim, surprised, before they heard rapid footsteps and a door slam, followed closely by a 'click' to indicate a door had been locked.

"Ugh, this is why I enjoy having the meetings at people like Felicity's homes…" Ariana grumbled. "The countries don't mind company and treat us to good food." Ariana glared at Francisca. "…Except at _her _house," she finished.

"What do you mean? Are you trying to imply my cooking is distasteful?" Francisca questioned.

"Yes, but that's beside the point. The whole time when we're there, France is always cooking food for you and him, completely ignoring the fact that we're there. Not that I'd want any of his food, anyway," Ariana answered.

"Not a fight about your counterparts' foods again," Louella growled. "Remember what happened a few years ago when this happened?"

Most of the counterparts nodded. "And it's still been happening," Ariana noted. "Just less violent… sometimes, that is."

"Whatever, we've got a situation here, folks! Are you all forgetting that, or somethin'?" Allison called attention to herself. "Now what we need to do is totally run in and get these guys and tell them, 'Hey! You guys are counterparts of countries! Wanna meet them?' and they'll be all like"-Allison put on a high pitched voice-"'Heck yes, thank you, totally awesome hero girl!'"-She got back into her regular voice- "and then I'll be like, 'Yeah, it was no prob.' So what do you guys think?"

"Too up-front," Louella opinionated.

"Too stupid," Ariana critiqued.

"Watch who you call 'awesome' around here!" Gillian shouted.

"Jeez, okay. They'll call me 'cool' instead, 'kay?" Allison corrected.

"No, we still need to explain to them what this is all about," Louella said. "We just need to find them one day, explain who we are, and then explain everything else slowly and in a way they'll understand."

"Well, I forgot to tell you guys, they already know the countries are people," Allison said.

"What?!" questioned the entire room, mutually startled.

"How is that poss-? Oh, yeah," Louella began to question, before cutting herself off in remembrance about the anime and manga Hetalia things.

"So, now we should just find them and tell them who we are and who they are slowly so they won't freak out, I guess?" Kierra suggested. "And if they have any questions, we can answer them."

"Sounds like a plan," Louella agreed.

"Who will go to tell them, though?" Robynne asked.

Iscah, who had just been seated again without Nathaniel near, raised her hand.

"No, Iscah, that would be a terrible idea," Louella disagreed. "You'd scare them."

"Wait? Iscah?" Elliot queried. "Weren't you running away from Nathaniel a few seconds ago?"

"I locked him in the room with England in it," Iscah said. "And don't say its inhumane or anything, since he'll scratch himself out of there eventually."

"You always say that," Mattie observed quietly.

"Wait! You locked him in a room with England?!" Ariana exclaimed, leaping from her chair. As quickly as she had exclaimed, she sped away and started opening and closing doors, by the sound of it. A few seconds of clashing, screaming, and banging sounded from the back rooms. Then, a minute or two passed, and Ariana came trudging out from the back room, covered in scratches and what looked like bite marks. "_Why _would you put me _through_ that?" she questioned dreadfully, slurring certain words.

"I'll give you two guesses," Iscah responded, smiling with her eyes closed, crossing her legs curtly, and slinging her arms onto her lap.

"It's been five years since I first met you, and you still never fail to give me the creeps, aru," Yiesha dwelled, speaking to Iscah as she opened her eyes again and turned to face the Asian girl.

"So seriously, you guys, who's going to go tell these chicks who they are?" Allison questioned.

"I'll go," Ariana volunteered, so that this meeting would end sooner; she needed to disinfect her wounds.

"Hey, I'd love to go on a field trip!" Felicity exclaimed happily.

"And I volunteer myself before anyone else can steal my spot!" Allison cried, pointing to the ceiling. The whole room groaned, minus Felicity and Mattie; Felicity was busy singing about her 'field trip', and Mattie was laughing at the gesture, if only to make Allison happy.

"Let's head out tomorrow morning, and meet them sometime around noon," Ariana planned. "For the rest of the day, we can try to find out where they live and who they are. But we'll need some help." The British girl turned to Gillian. "Gillian, you need to take us to Prussia's place so we can find out how he found us in the first place," she commanded.

"Okay," Gillian agreed.

"_Now_ we have a plan!" Allison shouted victoriously. "Those three freaky girls at DC won't know what hit 'em!"

"That's what we're trying to _avoid_," Ariana scowled.

Soon enough, England came into the room, clothes slightly torn, most likely due to Nathaniel. "Good, so if you all are quite done, could you mind terribly getting the hell out of here?" England questioned, annoyed because of all the noise and trouble.

"Yeah, whatever, c'mon, y'guys," Allison said, leaving the building with the rest of the gender swaps.

"I swear, even as adults, they act like immature children!" England complained once they had left.

"Well, they get it from their counterparts," Ariana said.

**JEEZ! This took me a while! But it's worth it, because all in all, this is the LONGEST CHAPTER I'VE WRITTEN FOR ANYTHING ON THIS SITE BEFORE! Yay!**

**Anyway, I think in terms of popularity, this one fails compared to its 'parent story'. But what can I say, this is only the second chapter! Whatever, though; just be sure to add this to your alerts and add to your favorites, if you would! Put it up on websites, recommend it to friends, do whatever! I love entertaining people like this, but if no one's reading it, there's no one to entertain!**

**WHATEVERISHOULDSTOPRANTINGAB OUTSTUPIDTHINGS. Don't try to make sense of that. But seriously, I'll see you next time, bye! :3**


	3. First Encounter of the Swapped Kind

Gillian led Allison, Ariana, and Felicity through her house. They walked down a long corridor on the second floor.

She hadn't hesitated at all when they had asked to come and use Prussia's stuff. She just wondered why Prussia's stuff? Their counterparts were bound to have the same, or even better technology. Maybe this was a setup? Maybe Robynne said, 'Hey, you should make Gillian feel important because she isn't'? Puh. Stupid. Gillian knew she was and always would be the most awesome out of the bunch of them, she didn't need to be in their plan to feel needed!

"Hey, Gillian," Ariana began, while scanning the walls with her bright emerald eyes, which were now half hidden by the glasses she had acquired two or three years ago. "Why is it that we didn't see this 'control room' you two had five years ago?"

"You didn't know where to look," Gillian replied. "The better question for you is, why the heck do you wear your hair like that?"

Ariana gasped shortly, before grabbing her semi-lengthy pig tails and holding them down so it looked like her was down. "None of your business, shut up…" she growled self-consciously.

"Ugh, I'm so boored!" Allison whined, hands stuffed in her coat pockets. "Why did I agree to this stupid crap?!"

"I think this is fun~!" Felicity exclaimed, perking up immediately and bringing her arms close to herself.

"You think everything is fun," Allison complained. "I only find fun in video games, TV, talking, hanging out, eating, heroic stuff, YouTube videos, music, games, sports, cute stuff, adventuring, and cool stuff like that."

"You seem to think a lot of things are fun, Allison!" Felicity said happily with an overly cheerful tone. You could practically see that cat smile on her face… If that was possible in real life, that is.

"Omigod, I can't take this anymore!" Allison shouted. "You're so freaking cute and perky! How do Louella and Kierra spend so much time with you without grabbing you and hugging you like a teddy bear?!"

"Will you two shut up already?" Ariana questioned, obviously annoyed. "We're almost there anyway, right, Gillian?"

"Actually…" Gillian started. "…I forgot where the room is."

"No way! You're kidding!" Ariana and Allison cried in unison, while Felicity exclaimed, "It doesn't matter since we had fun together the whole time!"

"Stop being such an adorable optimist!" Allison whined, melting. "It's so cute, I'm going to explode!"

"Allison, you stop being a pervert!" Ariana commanded. "If we didn't know any better, we'd think we brought Francisca with us!"

"How am I a pervert when she's a year older than me?" Allison queried.

"How do you find her cute when she's a year older than you?" Ariana countered.

"Stop being babies, both of you!" Gillian yelled over the noise. "And people say I'm the immature one!"

"If you would've remembered where the room is, we wouldn't be yelling," Ariana pouted.

"It's been five years since Prussia and I have been near that room at all," Gillian said. "Why do you think we'd remember such an insignificant room for so long?"

"Hey, Gillian, you sound really weird right now!" Felicity informed cheerfully.

"Huh?" Gillian asked.

"You kind of remind me of Robynne!" Felicity said, while Ariana and Allison stared with 'oh crap' surprised faces and shadeless bodies.

Gillian finally lost it. Her face turned red, and she balled up two fists. "WHY DO I KEEP DOING THIS?!" Gillian demanded, looking up and waving her fists in the air dramatically.

"It's not that big of a deal," Ariana tried to comfort, breaking the dramaticness Gillian had going on.

"'Not that big of a deal'?!" Gillian cried. "How would _you_ like it if you started to sound like Francisca?!"

"You have a good point," Ariana dwelled.

"Whatever y'guys," Allison said. "Does Prussia know where this place is, or what?"

"I don't know but it's worth an ask," Gillian replied, attempting to calm down.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Prussia!" Gillian called after looking for twenty minutes or so.

"What?" She heard the former country bark from downstairs. Gillian led her guests down the stairs to the basement.

"Jeez, it took you long enough," Gillian growled. "What are you doing down here, anyway?"

"Well, I'm trying to design the most awesome room ever down here. I already have a ton of stuff bookmarked online that I want to buy and put down here, so I'm trying to clear some of this stupid stuff out of here and put it in the attic or something, since we don't really have a use for it anymore," Prussia explained as he picked up a box of indiscernible items that looked exceedingly old.

"Then how come we didn't see you walking down the hallways or going up and down stairs or anything?" Gillian questioned suspiciously.

"Well, I got distracted; there was this bird outside and I didn't know if it was mine or not, so I needed to see if it would fly back inside," Prussia said.

"Did it come inside?" Gillian wondered.

"No," Prussia answered. "But hey, do you want to see the design I have for this place?"

"Heck yeah!" Gillian shouted, completely forgetting the three women behind her.

"It looks like we've been forgotten," Ariana observed.

"Well, it looks like we better find this freakin' control room by ourselves," Allison said. "Otherwise, we'll have to wait for these two to stop freaking out about a party room. Uhh, everyone knows mine's the best! Hello?"

"Whatever, this will be fun~!" Felicity cried excitedly. "And I'm sure if we all band together and search really hard, we'll find it in no time!"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

A few hours of searching later, night began to break. Allison looked out the window. "Argh, it's getting dark," she complained. "I'm going to get lost if I try to get home in the dark."

"You're saying you wouldn't if it were daylight?" Ariana wondered.

"We seriously need to ask Gillian where to sleep. Those guys have been chilling out in the basement for hours now," Allison said. Her companions agreed, and they descended down the stairs to the basement.

They were greeted with silence at first, before Gillian whipped her head around and noticed the three standing at the foot of the stairs. "Oh snap," Gillian said.

"'Oh snap' is an understatement!" Ariana shouted.

"Ditching us for a ton of hours until night is totally not chill!" Allison agreed.

"So, where do we sleep?" Felicity asked with her voice completely free of anger or resentment.

"Upstairs in the old bedrooms, I guess," Gillian responded. "I'm not tired, so while you sleep up there, I'll find the control room and tell you where it is when you wake up, okay?"

"Whatever," Allison said with a shrug. Together, her two friends and she went upstairs to the place where Gillian had told them to sleep.

The entry room was in the shape of a small familiar circle, with three couches centering a small table. Surrounding this furniture was fifteen or so doors. Behind twelve of these doors sat bedrooms, decorated with flags from all around the world from when most of the gender swaps were living here. One of these rooms served as a storage room closet, but had a grand piano in its center from when Robynne had been held here. Then, there was a door that led to an enormous room with a throne in it that made Prussia feel important. And the last room was… a bathroom. Really, you thought it would be another epic thing? No. Bathroom. Deal with it.

"I wonder if the decorations are still here," Allison said.

"I think Prussia and Gillian would be too lazy to go room-to-room up here and take everything out of the rooms," Ariana assumed.

"Hey, maybe we could sleep in the rooms we used to sleep in!" Felicity suggested.

"Why not, I would feel weird with any other flag on the wall," Allison agreed. So then, the three girls split up and found the rooms they had once been held prisoner in five years ago. When Allison entered her room, it was covered in cobwebs and dust due to lack of use, and the American flag hanging up on the wall was falling down on one corner, revealing fresher-looking white paint behind it. Oh well, Allison thought. Can't always sleep in luxury. Then she giggled at the image of Ariana freaking out over how dirty and 'unsanitary' her room was. Anyway, after that, Allison climbed into the sloppily made bed after shutting off the lights, and immediately gave way to her fatigue. She didn't even bother taking the bobby pins out of her hair or removing her shoes.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The next morning, Allison woke up to harsh sunlight streaming through her window (Which lacked blinds or curtains), and growled unpleasantly. She hated mornings, especially when she can sleep longer but is woken up by lights that won't turn off and can't. She got out of bed groggily, and stumbled lazily over to the door. She reached for the doorknob, and tried to turn it.

_Clunk. _

"What the heck…?" Allison mumbled to herself when she found she was unable to open the door.

_Clunk. _

"C'mon, stupid old door," Allison hissed, trying not to be loud for now, or else Ariana would bust down her door and rant at her forever.

_Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. _

Allison could've tried forever to open the door, but she stopped, already knowing why it wouldn't open. It was locked from the outside. Her eyes widened in an indistinguishable burst of either rage or scare, and she shouted exceedingly loudly.

A minute or two later, Allison heard pounding from somewhere outside her door. "Allison! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" She heard Ariana question loudly from a room or two away, making the British girl's voice somewhat muffled.

"Have you tried opening the door yet?" Allison asked loudly.

Allison listened closely, and heard footsteps, and then the familiar _clunk, clunk, clunk _sound these doors made when locked. "Huh?!" Ariana cried in disbelief. "Don't tell me they're starting with this again!"

"What's going on?" they heard Felicity wonder from a couple rooms over.

"We're locked in our rooms," Allison explained shortly.

Felicity gasped. "What? Are we going to get hurt again? I don't want to get hurt! I hope out friends don't get hurt, too!"

Suddenly, the three of them heard a _click _noise that repeated around fifteen times, before only the sounds of birds from outside could be heard. Allison, curious, attempted to open the door again. She turned the knob, and the door swung open. Soon enough, her two friends realized that their doors were unlocked as well and exited their rooms.

However, a little bit afterwards, they heard rapid footsteps climbing up a staircase, and Gillian entered the room. She looked exhausted.

"What the heck's your problem?" Allison questioned immediately.

"I found the control room," the woman panted. "I flipped a switch to see if it still worked, but then I fell asleep. When I woke up I heard banging upstairs, and noticed the switch I flipped locked all of the doors up here, so I unlocked them."

"Okay, where is it?" Ariana asked.

"Follow me," Gillian prompted. Her company nodded together, and they soon went upstairs and explored a bit.

Eventually, in the first floor hallway, Gillian entered a room with an extensive library. Now, anyone who read the first chapter and can remember everything that happened, and I mean EVERYTHING, then 1 :) I feel sorry for you for having such an active memory of something like a FanFiction instead of a foreign language or something more useful and 2 :) You must expect this room to have cobwebs and stuff everywhere, right? Nope, not this time. Remember five years ago when Gillian said she had about how Prussia can become big and powerful and rub it in people's faces? Well, her idea was that Prussia should get all of his old journals and publish them, replacing 'questionable' names (A character named Hungary? WTF?). Being who he is, fan girls made his journals popular worldwide and stuff, but whatever. The main point is, while looking for all of his journals, Prussia managed to clean up the place a bit. A bit of dust was present, but the only person who would likely notice would be Robynne… or Ariana when she's in charge, when she seems to notice everything everywhere somehow.

Gillian strolled around a bit, before she grabbed the leather-bound spine of a large dictionary and removed it from the shelf. Allison, eyes wide with excitement, grabbed it and started flipping through the pages. "Cool! Where's the secret button?" she questioned.

"There is none," Gillian said. "That would be ridiculous, how would we get that to work? No, Austria gave it to Prussia a while ago, I think." She reached her hand into the empty slot in the shelf. Soon enough, she seemed to grab something, and began pulling it. It looked like she was straining, however; how long was this rope or whatever she was pulling? Soon, Ariana decided to help her out. However, even with two nearly full grown women pulling it, it just wouldn't seem to budge.

"…Allison…" Ariana groaned, voice shot with effort.

"Hey, what?" the woman asked, before noticing what was going on. "Oh, yeah, okay!" she said, before marching over to the bookcase. "Clear away, people! The hero's going to try this out!" she commanded, before cracking her knuckles and grabbing the rope. She then began to yank it as hard as she could, without seeming to have trouble at all. After a few seconds, Gillian noticed the bookshelf beginning to rumble.

"Allison, you should stop pulling now," Gillian advised.

"No way! A secret door or anything hasn't appeared yet, so I'm going to keep pulling!" Allison shouted determinedly. "C'mon, secret door, appea-!"

She was cut off when the bookshelf abruptly shot up into the air, carrying Allison with it, and, as the front of the bookshelf came less than a meter away from the ceiling, the American was thrown into the ceiling and fell back on the bookshelf.

"Allison!" Felicity cried, worried her friend might be hurt.

"Are you okay?" Ariana asked without sincere worry. "If you're hurt or something, I'd be more than happy to call up one of the other gender swaps and ask them to take your place."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Allison said with a muffled voice, holding a thumbs-up out from her place on the ceiling. "I feel like a cartoon character," she added.

"Wow, let's get the giant flyswatter," Ariana said sarcastically. "Stop messing around and get down here."

Allison crawled out from the small gap between the front of the bookshelf and the ceiling, and fell onto the floor face-first. "Still okay, I'm guessing?" Ariana assumed. "No random broken leg?"

"Nope," Allison responded, picking her face off of the ground.

"C'mon, y'guys," Gillian said, motioning for them from the control room behind the bookcase. Allison and the other directly went in.

"Here it is," Gillian pronounced, as if she were introducing a friend.

The three of them looked around. The room was huge, but kind of dirty. There were blank computer screens lining the walls and sitting on a nearby table, and cords and wires were threatening to trip them if they took a single step without watching where they were going. Gillian went over to a switch on one of the monitors, and when she switched it on, the entire room lit up with the start up screen of an operating system. Except one screen was different; a large screen in the center of the sea of monitors, which seemed to boot up immediately and display a map; it seemed to be closed in on a location already.

Allison turned to see Ariana, and noticed she was looking at the screen with an odd, confused looking face. "What's up?"

"…Is that…?" Ariana asked herself, before shaking her head. "No way."

"Is it what?" Allison questioned nosily. When Ariana didn't respond, Allison persisted. "Ariana?! Is it what? C'mon! Tell me!"

"It's none of your business," Ariana growled, while still observing the screen closely.

"Hey, I got you your birthday cake for your sixteenth birthday party, and it was good, right?" Allison asked. "If you liked that cake, you have to tell me what's up."

"No, I despised that wretched cake," Ariana responded. "Coconut shavings are one of my least favorite things to eat on a cake the entire planet. And not to mention, I don't even like cake."

"Puh, you can't tell me with a straight face you don't like cake," Allison denied.

Ariana grabbed Allison's head, and spun her around so they were looking eye to eye. "I don't like cake," she enforced. "I also don't like chocolate, pie, candy, or any kind of ice cream that isn't vanilla." Allison swore she heard Ariana mumble something else and saying it was an exception, but Allison disregarded it as being her imagination.

Allison slowly removed Ariana's hand off of her head, before saying, "…Then you have no sense of taste." She went back into her regular tone. "Seriously, what do you like?"

Ariana ignored her and continued to research the map in silence. Allison scowled. _"Dude, I freaking need to know what she's obsessing about with that map," _she thought determinedly.

"So anyway," Gillian said once all of the computers started up. "What do I need to search?"

"I don't know," Allison admitted.

"But you saw them!" Ariana growled, annoyed. "Don't you think it would have been smart _to get their names_?"

"But I needed to get to our meeting," Allison defended. "I didn't have time to talk to three geeky girls! And I wasn't even sure if they were swaps! None of us are sure, remember?"

Ariana looked away with angry defeat, before looking back and nodding. "Yeah, I suppose you're right," Ariana said. "Maybe we can get clues from how they spoke or how they managed to go on vacation in Washington, DC."

"They'd have to live close enough, because it would be boring going on a fun vacation there if you live in California or something," Allison observed, sounding quite intellectual.

Ariana agreed with a nod. "If I can recall what I learned in school when was a kid, they'd have to live in Virginia or Maryland."

"Well, this looks like a job for Google Maps!" Gillian cried over-dramatically. She jumped into one of computer chairs and started to surf the web, before going to Google Maps and searching 'Washington, DC'.

A few minutes later, Gillian reported, "Okay, according to this, to live close enough to Washington, DC, they'd have to live in one of these cities." Gillian rolled out of the way so the three of them could have a look.

"In Virginia, its Alexandria, Arlington, and McLean, and in Maryland, Silver Stream, or Bethesda. At least, it looks like that to me," Ariana named. "And that's just the ones nearly directly beside DC."

"Well, that's how close it would have to be," Gillian said. "Right?"

"I guess," Allison said.

"Well, we should search through the newspapers there at first. Hopefully one of them did something noteworthy in their pasts," Ariana suggested.

Gillian nodded, before going back to the computer and typing some things into an advanced-looking system. It was an hour later, when Gillian said with weariness, "Bingo." She got out of the way so the bored gender swaps could view. "She looks like Estonia, right?"

Allison butted her way in. "Yeah, that girl does look like one of the girls I saw in DC."

"What city is this newspaper from?" Ariana questioned.

"A small-time high school paper from the suburbs of Alexandria," Gillian responded.

"Hmm…" Ariana dwelled. "Now we know what school they go to. But just to make sure everything matches up for this girl, we need to read that segment."

The paper, dated from the school year that recently ended, showed a girl who the caption named 'Edwina' wearing a blue sweater vest over a dressy shirt with a medium length beige skirt, medium length sandy blonde hair, and glasses. She was recognized for being a junior reporter for a local (but not big-time) newspaper.

"Seems about right," Allison said.

"Okay, you guys need to go to that city and try to find their houses," Gillian said.

"Not needed," Ariana observed. "At the bottom of this page, it lists the names of the reporters and where to send mail to."

"Sweet! Their real addresses are there?" Allison asked, not bothering to look herself.

"No, PO box numbers," Ariana said. "But then we can go to the box and wait for her."

"But the school year's over," Allison said. "Who'd send mail?"

"We will," Ariana said. "We'll go there, write a letter for her, send it there, and then wait for her to notice."

"Okay, she'll randomly check her PO box during the summer, sounds legit," Allison said.

"No, we'll go to the box and ask the person there if they'll call this 'Edwina' girl to get her to come get the mail," Ariana said. "Then we'll follow her home."

"This sounds very complicated!" Felicity noted, but didn't sound disappointed or negative in any way.

"Yes, but it'll work," Ariana said.

"And you guys will seem like stalkers," Gillian said. "Glad I get to stay here."

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

A day or two later, Raelyn heard the doorbell from her home's living room, and went to answer it. "Hey, Tora, hey, Edwina," she greeted.

Since their DC trip, Raelyn hasn't been the same. She's been kind of paranoid, nervous, and more quiet.

"Hey, Raelyn," Edwina greeted.

"Hey," Tora repeated.

"I'm glad you all could come over," Raelyn said. She led her friends to her room, where they then sat down on her bed.

Edwina noticed something on Raelyn's side table, and picked it up. "Still only halfway through?" she verified, flipping through the pages of Soul Eater volume 1.

Raelyn chuckled lightly. "I haven't had the time to read it," she said.

Suddenly, a ringing noise sounded from Edwina's pocket. "Hold on," she said, before pulling her cell phone from her pocket. She answered it. "Hello?"

Incoherent mumbling sounded from the phone.

"Huh?" Edwina asked.

More mumbling.

"Oh, okay." Edwina hung up. "I got some mail in my school PO box," Edwina said. "Wanna ride our bikes to the post office?"

"Sure, I'm glad you both biked here so we don't have to drive," Raelyn said.

A few minutes later, the three of them were riding down the street on mountain bikes. They rode for five minutes or so with bright J-Pop music blasting in their ears, before they all parked at the post office. They dismounted, paused their iPods, and entered the building.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Allison, Ariana, and Felicity hid in the nearby bushes, watching as the girls entered the building. "All three of them came," Ariana observed silently. "Now we just wait for them to exit."

Soon, the three girls exited the post office, Edwina holding a letter. "They've got bikes," Allison pointed out, despite this being clear to all three of them. Ariana promptly shushed her, and they watched as the three of them left.

"Go!" Ariana hissed, shooing her friends from the bushes. "We need to catch up to them before we get lost!"

Allison nodded, and bounded towards her car. "C'mon, get in," she told her friends impatiently, before flooring it.

Ariana was flying around limply in the passenger seat, while Felicity was looking out her window with huge, sparkling eyes. "You nutcase!" Ariana managed to yell, before being slammed into the car window and quieting down for a while. Allison simply laughed and went even faster.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Raelyn and her friends arrived at her house once more. They went back into Raelyn's room, and Edwina opened the envelope she had gotten in the mail. But before she could read it out loud for her friends to hear, Raelyn's bedroom door opened, revealing a familiar young girl. "Hey, Azusa," Raelyn greeted.

No, the three girls aren't seeing K-On characters in the room suddenly. This is Raelyn's little sister, whose name is Ashleigh. She's only kind of into anime like the girls, but doesn't read manga or listen to the same kind of music. She would be a fourth member of their group, but she's only ten. She gets a different nickname every time the girls to Raelyn's house and happen to see her, and it's mostly because of how adorable she looks: she has plushy cheeks alive with freckles, bright blue eyes, and reddish-brown hair, a bit of which was taken aside to form a side ponytail on the left side of her head.

"Azusa?" Ashleigh asked, putting a finger to her cheek. "That's K-On, right?"

"Yep," Edwina praised. "You're getting better at this."

"Yay!" The young girl cheered. "Maybe soon enough I'll be able to watch Hetalia with you guys! Won't that be fun?"

"Yeah," Tora said with a chuckle.

Ashleigh came closer to the girls and saw the letter in Edwina's hands. "What's that?" she asked.

"We don't know yet," Edwina said. "Do you want to read it with us?"

"Sure!" Ashleigh cheered. She got onto Raelyn's bed, and looked over Edwina's shoulder as she read the letter out loud.

"Dear Edwina," she began. "Soon, three women will be at the door of the house you are at right now. Let them in and allow them to come upstairs (And maybe give them cookies). This is important… and confidential. So don't tell anyone, okie-dokie? From, Anonymous."

Raelyn gasped and grabbed her bed pillow. She flung it against her face so only her huge worried eyes were showing. "What if that woman's with them?" Raelyn questioned, as Ashleigh asked if she was okay while poking her sister in the back of the head.

"The chances of that are slim," Edwina comforted. "Even if this does have a bad air to it."

"Whoever wrote this sure talks weirdly," Ashleigh commented.

"Yeah, you're right, Azusa," Edwina said. "Who goes from 'This is confidential' to 'Okie-Dokie'?"

Soon enough, they heard Raelyn's mom shout from the living room, "Rae! There's some people here to see you! They say it's important!"

When Raelyn ducked down into her pillow instead of responding, Tora called, "Send them in, please."

Later, their bedroom door opened gradually, before the trio gasped at the women standing in the room. The first woman pointed to Edwina. "A-ha! Edwina!" She cried victoriously. She turned to her two companions. "I told you we didn't start following the wrong kid halfway here!"

"Maybe so, but you still nearly ran over a cat on the way," a second woman said in a mean tone with a British accent and a glare. "Not to mention the splitting pain in my forehead."

"At least you drove out of the way just in time!" the third woman said cheerfully with an Italian accent.

The three girls were dumbstruck, while Ashleigh looked on in amazement. "Your voices sound so cool!" she exclaimed, running up to the British woman and pulling on her skirt. "Say something else!"

The woman looked at Ashleigh oddly. "This is the first time I've ever gotten such an odd request," she observed. "Now, what should I say?"

"Red leather, yellow leather?" The third woman suggested.

Ashleigh removed her grip off of the British woman and instead stared at the third woman intently. "Your voice is even cooler!" she squeaked. "Now you say something!"

"Okay!" the woman agreed. "Hello, I'm Felicity, and these are my friends Ariana and Allison, what's your name, little girl?"

"Awesome…" Ashleigh mumbled with starry eyes.

"Awesome is your name?" Felicity wondered. "That's so cool!"

"No, it's Ashleigh, but your voice was so cool-sounding," Ashleigh said. "Where are you from?"

"Italy," Felicity answered. "It's very pretty and fun there. There is pasta, and cities, and-"

She cut herself off when Ariana waved her hand so she could start speaking to the girls they were here for. "So, you three," she started, pointing to the wide eyed girls sitting on Raelyn's bed. "Who are you all?"

"Edwina, Raelyn, and Tora," Edwina introduced slowly with her voice cracking and pointing to everyone named in order.

"Sweet, their names match up!" The woman introduced as Allison said.

"It's the woman from DC," Tora mumbled to her friends.

"She really _is_ female America…" Edwina said, as Raelyn whimpered.

"Why is she so afraid?" Allison asked.

"I think she's afraid that since there's female you guys, there's a female Russia out to get us," Tora explained.

The gender swaps exchanged looks. "Well, we'll make sure you're safe," Ariana ensured, voice sounding unsure.

"So, what are you three here for?" Raelyn spouted quickly, words muffled by her pillow though her eyes shove above it.

"Okay, so, we think you guys might be the gender swaps of the Baltics," Allison said. "You know who they are, right?"

The three girls nodded, while Ashleigh shook her head and repeatedly asked, "Who are they?"

"I think we already figured that out," Edwina informed.

"So now what?" Raelyn asked sacredly, sounding like a little girl.

"What _are_ we going to do now?" Ariana asked her group silently.

"Dude, what makes you think I know?" Allison countered in the same way.

"It was a general question, it wasn't focused at you!" Ariana hissed.

"I don't even know what you guys are talking about!" Felicity exclaimed brightly.

"Well, we'll have to come up with something and see what they think is the best idea, I guess," Ariana reasoned.

"So, dudes, do you want to hop in our car and drive off?" Allison asked.

"No, we aren't supposed to get in cars with strangers," Raelyn responded shrilly.

"Okaay… I'm beat. Ariana?" Allison asked, pointing to the woman.

"Uhh… maybe sometime, if it's okay with your parents, I mean…" Ariana didn't know how to put it. "Maybe we could take you to meet the Baltics? And, maybe some of the other countries and gender swaps, too?"

"Actually," Edwina started, "that sounds like a good idea. But how would we get our parents to agree to that?"

"You have a good point," Ariana observed. She took out an index card and a pen from Allison's coat pocket (Allison exclaimed, "I had index cards and pens on me?!") and scribbled down a number, before handing it to Tora. "Here, on the off chance your parents do agree to this, call this number, and we'll make plans."

"Who's number is it?" Tora asked.

"Mine," Ariana replied. "But depending on when you call, England might pick up, so just know that. Don't call between four and five-thirty pm, okay?"

"What do you do at that time?" Edwina questioned, this being just one of the many questions floating in her mind right now.

"Well, I kind of go visit a little childhood friend of mine," Ariana replied, an imaginary sweat drop the perfect accessory for her face right then.

"Who?" the three girl's questions kept coming.

"…Sealand," Ariana answered after brief silence.

"Dude! You still hang out with that kid?" Allison questioned."No way, that's so weird!"

"Hey, shut up," Ariana demanded, growling.

"So yeah, call her maybe, or whatever," Allison said, leading her friends and herself out of the room as Ariana facepalmed at the bad retired reference.

Raelyn smacked her face with the pillow, and screamed in it. "We're gonna meet her!" she cried.

"Hey, calm down," Edwina comforted. "I doubt any of them would be dumb enough to introduce us to her."

"Well, one of them seemed smart enough to avoid doing it, but those other two were complete ditzes!" Raelyn argued.

"We can't agree to this if Raelyn doesn't feel safe doing it," Tora said.

"Yeah," Edwina said. "I guess when we get older, we might be able to go and meet them on our own or something."

Raelyn sniffled. "I don't want you both to be disappointed…" she said. "I guess, if you both want to, then… I could get over it for a while."

"You don't have to do that if you don't want to," Tora said.

"No, I'm going to agree to it," Raelyn said, newfound determination in her tone. "I don't want to let you guys down or think I'm a wimp!"

"That's great," Tora said. "We'll ask our parents tonight, since my mom's going to be here soon."

"Agreed," Edwina said.

Raelyn nodded.

"Can I come too?" Ashleigh asked.

"Oh, yeah, Azusa was here the entire time…" Edwina realized, frozen. "Uh, no, Azusa. Forget everything you just heard and saw."

"No, that was so cool! I want to go with you to meet people!" Ashleigh said.

"We aren't even sure if our parents are going to let us or not," Tora said.

"Well, if Raelyn can go, I'm coming, too!" Ashleigh announced defiantly.

"But you don't even know what Hetalia is," Raelyn countered.

"Yes, I do! Italy and Germany and Japan and stuff!" Ashleigh denied. "And one day you called me 'Kumajirou', too!

"But you don't know who the Baltics are," Edwina said.

"I just haven't gotten that far yet!" Ashleigh whined. "Pleease?"

"No!" Raelyn demanded.

"Hey, don't yell at Azusa!" Edwina joked, but with a half-serious tone.

"She's my little sister, I can talk to her however I want!" Raelyn disagreed.

"I'm telling!" Ashleigh threatened, running towards the door.

"Hey, fine, you can come!" Raelyn prevented. "Just don't get us in too much trouble, okay?"

"Okay," Ashleigh promised with a sweet smile.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

As the three women were driving back to the airport so they could all fly home, Allison asked Ariana (who insisted on driving this time), "So what were you freaking out about on Gillian's GPS thing?"

"Nothing, I wasn't freaking out about anything," Ariana answered. "Be quiet."

"No, you were all like, 'No way, that can't be right!'" Allison argued. "What was it about?"

Ariana sighed. "If it will get you to shut up…" she mumbled, before explaining in a hushed tone, "The place that was pulled up on the screen reminded me of my home when I was a child, before I was ever aware I was a gender swap."

"That's it?" Allison asked. "But that was, like, five years ago or something. I bet by now your parents forgot your name."

"That's the thing. I've forgotten what my parents look like. I only remembered what my house looked like because I was always outside instead of inside, with my family. In retrospect, if had spent more time with my family despite the fact they didn't like me, I wouldn't be where I am today; with a lot of friends-minus Francisca-someone who knows exactly what I mean when I say it, and every day is full of excitement for me," Ariana reflected. "I'd probably be in college or something right now if I still lived with my parents. No, scratch that- they wouldn't care enough to send me to college- I'd probably be a lowly McDonald's employee by now."

Allison stared at Ariana with brightened eyes. "Whoa," she said. "I didn't realize…that suddenly you're being a whiny teenager."

"Did what I just said mean anything to you?!" Ariana questioned in disbelief.

"Yeah," Allison said. "I learned that if that chick who wrote Twilight ever needed more inspiration for a stupid depressed chick, she should come to you."

"Hey! I was certainly not being whiny!" Ariana argued loudly.

"Yes, you were, you were being the token whiny depressed girl! Seriously!" Allison countered.

"Say another line about me being whiny and I'll throw you out of the sun roof!" Ariana threatened.

"Uh, Ariana, everyone and their mom knows that you can't throw me anywhere, since you're weak and have jelly arms and you can't even pick up a bookshelf," Allison said.

"A normal person shouldn't be able to lift a bookshelf on their own without any assistance!" Ariana shouted. "You only could because you're America's counterpart!"

"Yeah, and that makes me automatically cool!" Allison announced off-handedly.

"I don't even know why I bother sharing my life with you…" Ariana growled, facepalming. "The sooner I get home, the better."

**Hey! DON'T QUESTION MY LATENESS. My South Park fanfic just got a huge boost in popularity so I'm writing that at the same time, I'm starting a Soul Eater fanfic (it's a one-shot for now), I have school, and I'm writing a BOOK. Yeah. During the summer I had no problems with three out of these four problems, and even the last was eliminated due to the fact I write fanfics by day and write a book by night. So yeah, I'm busy to say the least.**

**But anyway, I'm sorry for focusing a bit much on the original characters this chapter, but if I didn't, we'd miss important details. And if you're wondering about the car scene, I kind of felt like adding that as a bit of a sub plot.**

**Also fun fact! At that part, I almost considered them wrecking the car! I decided not to, since A:) that would be incredibly time-consuming and stupid and B:) If I wanted them to crash, I'd make them crash when Allison was driving. So yeah, they're fine.**

**One more thing before I end this off like usual; Shoutout to my sister, who the character of Ashleigh is named and kind of based after. No, she's not an annoying little kid, but her name is Ashley and she is a ginger and she likes anime, so yeah. Also I added the random anime nicknames for my own weird pleasure, don't question me. **

**So yeah! This has been another chapter of this fanfiction wrapped up without a huge cliffhanger, since it is really long. Be sure to share this, favorite this, and follow it or me, whatever. Just so you know, I'd love it if this or more favorably Genderswapped Nations was recommended for Hetalia Axis Powers fanfics on TvTropes, since I like TvTropes and I like knowing peoples summaries and opinions about me and what I write. Also if you do want to put it there, don't tell them I told you to. Seriously, that would suck for both of us. Mostly me, but still.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this, and if you do, well, you should check out my other fanfics! See you soon (if my teachers will let me write without being buried in work and papercuts)! :3**


	4. The Sleepover is a Lie

Tora looked out of her bedroom window, staring at squirrels using a nearby phone line as a highway. She knew for sure her mom would say no, but she felt sad about it regardless. No matter what she imagined or how she put it, she just couldn't put in a way for herself that wasn't equally depressing.

And to make matters gloomier, Edwina and Raelyn weren't coming over until tomorrow, so she was alone. She could always talk to them over the phone or voice chat, but she didn't want Edwina or Raelyn to worry about her. Especially Raelyn. She's been getting more and more frightened as her thoughts about the Russian gender swap became increasingly frequent.

Tora's mother entered the room, and said, "Hey, Tonya, what's going on?"

Tora didn't feel like correcting her mother. "I'm just disappointed because I can't go on that tour with my friends."

"You barely know those three women, honey," Tora's mom said.

"I told you, we know them well enough," Tora said.

"From what I've heard from Raelyn's mother, you just met them," Tora's mom countered smoothly. "Now please, stop moping over it. I know how much you dislike Twilight, and by the looks and sounds of it, you seem more depressed than the girl in that book."

Tora was silent for a while, so her mom decided to leave her daughter alone instead of pestering her any longer. Tora continued to stare out her window, until she got a phone call. "Hello?" she answered.

"You didn't say it," Edwina said.

"Oh, yeah," Tora said, forgetting her Azumanga Daioh ringtone set for Edwina. "Sorry."

"It's okay," Edwina ensured. "Lately, Raelyn hasn't even been picking up when I call her."

"She seems to be so frightened of all of this," Tora said. "Thinking about it makes me feel bad."

"Me too," Edwina said. Suddenly, she gasped. "Wait, Tora…remember my Hetalia mangas?" she asked.

"Yeah, you lost track of them not too long ago, didn't you?" Tora verified.

"Mmhmm," Edwina said. "I still don't know where they got to. Are you positively sure you don't know where they are?"

"…I'm not sure if this is really an appropriate time to talk about this," Tora replied.

"Yeah, you're right," Edwina agreed. "I'm sorry I brought it up again."

"Wait, hold on," Tora said. "I think I have the answer to our lost mangas."

"Hmm?" Edwina asked.

"Remember that one time when I left a jacket at your house and had to come get it with Felina last week?" Tora questioned.

"Yeah, but you don't think she…?" Edwina asked, unsure if this guess was at all accurate. "Do you have her number?"

"Yep, do you want me to call her?" Tora asked.

"Please, if you can, my break is almost over, and I need to practice," Edwina said, as a door opened in the background and someone summoned her for piano lessons. "I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Uh-huh," Tora said, hanging up. She then dialed Felina's number into her phone and waited for her friend to pick up. It took a while, but she eventually got a hold of her.

"Hey, Tora!" she heard Felina shout over somewhat loud pop music.

"Hey, Felina," Tora greeted in a more silent fashion.

"What's up, why'd you call me?" Felina asked, getting straight to the point.

"Well, remember when you came to Edwina's house last week with me and you wandered off?" Tora prompted her to recall. "Where'd you go?"

"I found this library and I was about leave since books are boring, but then I found these comic books like the one you had that one day in the corner of the library. I found this series, Hetalia, I think, and decided to borrow them," Felina explained, hushing voices in the background.

"And you didn't check them out?" Tora verified.

"I had to check them out?" Felina asked in surprise. "Where was the librarian…?"

"There wasn't one," Tora answered. "Can you please return them when you come over this week, though? Edwina has been looking all over the place for them."

"Ok, I finished reading them, anyway," Felina said, before hanging up. _"There goes _that _problem, I guess. But there's still Raelyn to worry about, so there's not much to celebrate about yet," _Tora thought solemnly, laying her phone down and staring blankly out the window. Just then, she got another phone call.

"Hello?" Tora asked, confused as she didn't check to see who called.

On the other end, all she heard was silence, and maybe a little noise every once in a while. Eventually, though, the phone was picked up and Ashleigh's voice sounded. "Hey, is this Tora?" She asked, sounding concerned.

"Yes… Chiyo. Yeah, Chiyo, it's Tora," She answered, contemplating halfway through what to nickname the girl today. She could remember she nicknamed her this once before, but she couldn't think of anything better to call her.

"Well, Raelyn is really sad," Ashleigh said, as a question went unanswered behind her. "I called you on my cell phone so that she could talk to you. She didn't want to use hers."

"Really…?" Tora asked, extremely worried. "Put her on the line."

"Hold on, though," Ashleigh said quickly. "Chiyo is definitely Azumanga Daioh, right?"

"…Yeah," Tora answered, too distressed to praise her for getting it right without wondering first. Soon after, the other end made a noise that confirmed Ashleigh handed the phone to Raelyn. Her friend sniffled. "H-hello?" she asked.

"Hey, Raelyn," Tora greeted somberly with anxiety. "How's it going?"

"Not good," Raelyn answered quietly. "I… had another bad dream about _her_."

"What? Really?" Tora questioned. "How bad was it?"

"I'll just tell you what happened," Raelyn whimpered shakily. "I was sitting in the back seat of a car and you two were beside me, and we were all tied up. And then I asked where we were and who was driving, and the woman was in the driver's seat. She turned around and smiled, and then the car stopped and I tried to get you guys to talk to me so I would feel better, but you guys weren't awake. Then suddenly we were in a house and we were still tied up and we were laying in a room, and then the woman entered the room again and she smiled again and then she started coming closer and closer to us and then…" Her voice trailed off, and Tora could make out crying as Ashleigh reclaimed the phone.

"I don't get it, who's the woman? Is she a murderer?" Ashleigh asked.

"I think it would be best if you didn't know," Tora said shakily. "Do you think you can call Edwina to tell her?"

"Sure I can, her phone number is on Raelyn's phone," Ashleigh confirmed. "Will Raelyn be okay?"

"I hope so," Tora replied, hanging up and looking away.

Her door opened again. "Your friends sure seem to want to talk to you badly," Tora's mother observed.

Tora suddenly got an idea. "Yeah, Edwina wanted to ask me if I wanted to stay with her for a while," Tora lied.

"Really?" Tora's mother asked. "Well, I suppose you could ride your bike up there."

"Okay, thanks, mom," Tora said with a shaky smile. Her mother smiled warmly, and left the room.

Tora waited a bit to ensure she was off the line with Ashleigh before she dialed Edwina's number. "What's up?" Her friend asked.

"Edwina, you need to tell your mom Raelyn invited you to come over," Tora instructed.

"Why?" Edwina asked.

"I have a plan for how we can meet up with those women," Tora said. "I told my mom I'm staying with you, so you need to tell your mom you're staying with me and Raelyn and her sister have to tell their mom they're staying with me. Then while we're biking, we'll meet up at the post office and call them up."

"But won't a trip like that take a long time? And won't our moms call each other to verify?" Edwina inquired.

"We can explain if they get too worried. We'll get in trouble, but I think it might make Raelyn feel better if we show her there's nothing to worry about. Come on, I know you're usually the one who comes up with plots like this that I can't poke holes in. I know there are holes in mine, but can you just ignore them for Raelyn's sake?" Tora tried to answer.

"Yes, but I hope this works…" Edwina said. "It's really depressing me with how scared Raelyn is, and you're acting more and more troubled about her each day. I need my best friends back."

"Okay. Well, I-I'm glad there's a solution to Raelyn's fear now, just be sure to call her, I'm sure Chiyo will pick up," Tora said.

"You nicknamed her Chiyo again?" Edwina queried. "I called her Puchiko."

"Sorry, when I nicknamed her, I had too much on my mind to think of anything better," Tora replied shamefully with a nervous little smile.

"It's okay, I understand," Edwina said, seeming to giggle a bit, but whether she was truly amused or just trying to calm someone (herself or Tora) was up for debate. "Well, I need to call up Puchiko now, I guess. I'll call you back when I tell her."

Tora nodded, and hung up. She then went over to her closet and dragged out one of her bags, the one she usually used for sleepovers and the likes. She opened it and set it on her bed, before collecting a few outfits and stuffing them in. This trip would definitely be the absolute trip of her life, and she assumed it would be amazing, like going to Hollywood and meeting celebrities, except these celebrities will actually be nice and instead of going to one big dirty city she'd get to go to different countries. Tora couldn't wait, though she knew leaving for around a week without a trace would definitely get her grounded for the rest of the summer, but oh well. She wanted this very badly, so she didn't care. She'd find plenty of things to do over the rest of this time, anyway. Then she'd later see her friends again when school started, and they could again take charge of the Anime Club.

A few minutes later, Edwina called again. "Raelyn and Puchiko agreed to tell their mom, so I think now would be as good a time as any to call that Ariana person and tell her we're coming. What times did she say not to call her at?"

"Um… I forget, I think around two or three or something like that…?" Tora responded unsurely as she took the index card from her nightstand, where she had put it yesterday when she got home.

"Yeah, I can't really remember much of what they said, either," Edwina admitted. "Right now its five, so I think it should be safe to call her about now."

"Okay," Tora said, hanging up. She glanced anxiously at the index card, studying the numbers unsurely. _"I know a Hetalia character's phone number…" _she thought in disbelief. _"And when she picks up, I'll be talking to one, even though I've talked to her before, but this time, I'll be talking instead of her…" _She eventually got over her anticipation and angst and decided to dial the number.

She was left for a while just sitting quietly on her bed, tension running through her body and sweat threatening to roll down her forehead (And eventually do this, making her hair wet and sticky) until the phone was picked. Tora prayed it wasn't England, or she'd explode. I'd be like calling your grandmother and having the President on the other end instead; just that she would have no trouble walking to her grandmother, so it would be more like calling the Vice President and getting the President instead. Whatever, I'm wasting a lot of time here, I'll get to the point.

Tora calmed a little (only a little) when she heard Ariana pick up the phone. "Hello?"

Tora didn't want to focus on her voice right now or she'd get nervous again, so she tried to focus on the background sound-rolling tides and a childlike voice, for some reason—as she spoke, though this didn't help much. "H-hello, its Tora," she sputtered quickly, coming close to tripping over her tongue and saying her name as Dora.

Tora could hear the child voice in the background, but the most she could comprehend was that it belonged to a boy and he was asking an indiscernible question. Ariana, as it sounded, covered up the microphone and responded to the child behind her back; however, it was muffled, so Tora was still in the dark about what he had asked. "Excuse me for sounding rude, but did you happen to remember what times I told you I wouldn't be able to speak?" Ariana whispered in an almost hissing way, but since she said she didn't want to sound rude, it was just a whisper.

"No, I forgot, I'm sorry," Tora nearly cried loudly, but refrained from this and only said in a frenzied tone.

"It's fine. Just try to call again later, around six, okay?" Ariana asked.

"Your six or my six?" Tora questioned uneasily, suddenly remembering time zone differences.

"Oh, right, I completely forgot about the time zones…" She could make out Ariana mutter to herself. A few seconds passed of Ariana mumbling to herself about differences and different mathematical things like that silently, before she said, "Tomorrow, you should call me around your ten thirty, since the times I told you were my times and it would be nine or ten pm for me if you used them in your time zone. Okay?"

"… Ten am?" Tora verified shakily.

"Yes, ten am," Ariana replied. Right as the conversation ended and they would both hang up, Tora exclaimed fretfully, "Wait!"

Ariana responded almost immediately. "Yes?"

"If I can ask without being annoying… is that voice in the background Sealand?" Tora asked shakily.

"Yes, it is," Ariana replied. "Do you want to talk to him?"

"Uh… no thank you," Tora answered rapidly. If talking to a gender swap of a Hetalia character was bad enough for her, she could only dream in her worst nightmares the level of uneasiness that would spawn from speaking to the original. But she probably would need to get used to that, seeing is how she's going to go on a trip soon where that's the main attraction.

"Okay, I understand," Ariana said. Tora wished more people were more like this instead of the usual question of 'why'. "I'll tell the others as soon as I can. Thank you."

"Hehheh," Tora giggled nervously, before hanging up. She hoped Ariana didn't have anything else to say before she hung up, since she hated cutting people off like that.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

The next day at around nine am, Tora was sitting on her bed, reading. If you automatically assumed that she's reading a manga, well, you're wrong, because that's not all she reads. Right now she's reading a book in a series of books she reads during the school year. Seriously, if you automatically assumed that whenever she reads she always reads a manga, shame on you.

She was using the index card with Ariana's number on it as a bookmark, so she would be reminded to call her every time she flipped a page. Edwina and Raelyn were going to be coming over at around twelve, and, since Raelyn was beginning to feel better, she would also be bringing Ashleigh. Tora secretly hoped Edwina or Raelyn could think of a good nickname for her today. She couldn't think of anything they hadn't already used.

Right as she finished reading a chapter, her phone rang loudly, her ringtone for unknown numbers (a Vocaloid song) ringing in her ears as she exclaimed in surprise, jumped, and dropped her book on the floor. She grabbed the phone rapidly and answered it, not being cautious because she just wanted the phone to stop ringing and didn't care. "Hello?" She answered, voice clearer (and a bit louder) than usual.

"Is this Tora?" The woman asked with an odd voice.

"Y-yeah?" Tora answered, her cautious nature returning.

"Ah, okay," The voice said. "Well, my name is Gillian. I'm a friend of those women who came to see you and your friends a few days ago."

"Oh," Tora said. "So, who's counterpart are you? I think I recognize the accent."

"I'm Prussia's counterpart," Gillian responded.

"Why are you calling?" Tora questioned.

"I just wanted to know something," Gillian replied. "You and your friends are going to meet _all _of us, right?"

"I think," Tora said, unsure.

"And I heard that one of your friends was having nightmares lately about a crazy, scary woman?" Gillian asked.

"Yeah, all of us have sometimes, but hers are the worst," Tora said, referring to Raelyn.

"Well, I think the woman in your dreams just might be me," Gillian said worriedly. She sounded even more anxious about this than Tora did most of the time. "There was a time of my life, when I was around thirteen, when I was… pretty evil, to say the least. I… killed one person, and I almost killed two more. So maybe, when you talk to Ariana again today, it would be a good idea to ask her if you could skip meeting me. We can just talk on the internet, or something. I have a blog, you know."

"…Really?" Tora questioned in disbelief."But all of you seem so nice, as far as I could tell from Ariana and those other two…"

"I'm serious. And to rephrase what I said, I actually killed Allison, not myself, someone Prussia hired for a bit, but I was behind it. And I nearly killed Robynne and Ariana in the same day, so… you may not want to meet me," Gillian said.

"Wait, who's Robynne? And if Allison got killed, why is she okay now?" Tora was confused.

"It's a pretty long story, or, at least, the last part is," Gillian said. "Whatever, I don't have much of anything to do today, and I guess I'll shorten it a bit. Okay, Robynne is Austria's counterpart."

"What's she like?" Tora wondered.

"She's a bit of a jerk, but I guess I kind of deserve it for battering her up so badly," Gillian answered, sounding a bit annoyed that she had been interrupted. "Anyway, basically on of the guys Prussia hired killed her, and then Ariana used black magic to bring her back to life. And then after that I cut up Robynne a ton of times and got Prussia to stab Ariana in the back, so yeah."

"Ah…?!" Tora cried quietly. "That's really dark! Do I even want to be a counterpart?"

"It's not an easy life," Gillian said. "I mean, most of the time it rocks, but it sucks sometimes."

"Oh," Tora said. "Well… are you like that anymore?"

"No, definitely not," Gillian said. "But no one really ever seems to let it go, and I apologize to Robynne about one-fourth of the time when I see her. She doesn't really forgive me for it, but I did cut her up a lot of times and torture her a bit because I was freakin' NUTS, so I understand…. A little."

"…Excuse me, but… don't you have counterpart stuff to do?" Tora asked, not trying to be rude, but it was nearing ten fifteen by that time.

"Oh, yeah. I need to call up some people, update stuff, things like that. But hey, come over if you really want, but I think your friend should probably stay away from my place," Gillian said.

"Goodbye," Tora said as Gillian hung up.

**Stab. The reader expected a funny, whimsical ending for this chapter but got regained Nightmare Fuel instead.**

"**I'm sorry…"**

**Heheh, sorry. I bet you didn't expect THAT craziness to come up again. Neither did I; crazy Gillian's regain thingy is over because she's not Prudence anymore and she made friends and she's an adult. So yeah, I'm still sorry. I need to stop doing that like I need to stop listening to that one song 'For River' from 'To the Moon'. Seriously.**

**Whatever. I'm sorry if this chapter took a while to get uploaded, but I'm starting a playthrough on my YouTube account and my science teacher has become a real jerk about homework and textbook stuff, so I've been distracted. AND I've also gotten back into roleplaying online, so yeah.**

**So, I'm about done with this chapter. Please do all the stuff this site has to show you like stories and I'll see you next chapter!**

**No, no. Wait just a second. This is not about the cat face, but listen, this is important. Never make fake blood for a costume for Halloween using Kool-Aid. It stains on your face and stings, and doesn't look realistic or anything. And blood only smells like cherries when you have diabetes or something. Also know that Derpkips are dangerous. Don't get it? You know what Pokemon is? Derpkip is a stupid Mudkip. Yeah. Bye! :3**


	5. Insert Creativity Here

Edwina was sitting in the front seat of her mother's car, hopping up and down excitedly. She knew Tora had told Ariana that they could go. This was apparently going to be their last normal meeting before they would run away and go on the tour. She couldn't have been more excited.

Honestly, the plan Tora had created was perfect, almost completely seamless. However, Edwina was still bothered by the fact they would be gone for at least a week and their parents would be worried sick. But they knew that being together and anime and manga were their favorite things in the world. And if they really got to be so worried that it got on the news or something, they'd just send a letter to their parents and tell them what was going on. The worst they could possibly do would be grounding them for a while; nothing they couldn't deal with. Besides, they wouldn't be grounded without seeing each other for too long; school was going to start in about two weeks. They'd just meet in one of their classes, or at lunch, bringing notebooks to draw in or mangas to read as usual.

Edwina's mom finally parked in Tora's parking lot; Tora opened the front door a few seconds later, waving lightly. Soon, Raelyn came up behind Tora and jumped up and down behind her happily, waving excitedly and shouting for her to come in.

Wait, no. That's just what Edwina was used to expecting. This time, Raelyn came up behind Tora and glanced at Edwina with a small smile that looked tense and somewhat forced. Edwina gave a caring yet distracted smile to them as she began to approach them. She missed how Raelyn used to be terribly. It was like an entire part of her life has been torn out and hastily sewed back incorrectly.

They soon walked up Tora's creaking bedroom stairs, heading towards her somewhat large bedroom in the attic. Edwina noticed that her room was somewhat tidy; the only things on the floor were some stray pairs of clothing and a book that she immediately recognized as her Haruhi Suzumiya manga, the second one, which she had lent to Tora not long ago. She picked it up and located Tora's bookmark about three-fourths of the way into the book; she was only about a chapter or two away from finishing. She put the book on the windowsill of the window Tora used often to see if her friends were there (as it overlooked the parking lot) and sat on Tora's bed with Tora and Raelyn.

"Raelyn…" Edwina muttered, seeing Raelyn staring out the window anxiously, as if expecting someone to arrive.

"What's up?" Tora asked.

"N-nothing," Raelyn stammered, looking back to her friends with a red face. Edwina couldn't tell whether her face was embarrassed or tense. Raelyn started twiddling her thumbs.

"Uh… well… I drew a comic for you guys," Edwina said, before grabbing her small notebook and flipping it open to a page near the end. She passed the comic over to Tora and Raelyn, and watched over their shoulders as they read, informing them as they read the title, "It's supposed to be a kind of world meeting thing, but with the gender swaps instead. I searched their pictures up on the internet, since one of them, I think her name is Gillian, has a blog where she posts pictures and stories about them all the time."

Tora looked at her with a slight questioning look, before examining the comic with Raelyn, who seemed slightly reluctant. She had no reason to be, though, since Edwina hadn't added the Russian gender swap, whom she learned was named 'Iscah', both due to Raelyn's fear and that Gillian had no pictures of her on her blog (Edwina could guess why). All three of them read the comic together.

The first panel depicted the German gender swap, Louella, starting off the meeting. She didn't look exactly like Germany; instead of slicked back hair, it was boyishly short and somewhat spiky. "Okay, you all pay attention," she said. Edwina didn't like adding accent quirks to the dialogue (ex. Writing Japanese accents as 'Herro' and such), so it was up to them to make up her voice. Edwina was kind of proud of the plot she had constructed for the meeting. "It has been discovered that one of you gender swaps—" The view changed to show the entire table of swaps "—has been stealing all of the cookies Francisca always brings for the group."

It showed Francisca, looking falsely sad and for some reason looking on the verge of tears. "And I always make them special with extra everything and gourmet icing~!" She whined.

Half of the people there turned to face Ariana. "Hey, don't blame me," Ariana said, glaring at Francisca. "Not only do I not like cookies, I wouldn't eat _her _cookies if they were the last things to eat in the world."

"Dude, are you freaking serious?!" Allison questioned with disbelief from what looked like the opposite end of the table. "Cookies are, like, some of the best things on the entire freaking earth, and you're trying to tell me you don't like them?!"

"Yes," Ariana growled with an aggravated expression. "Since you seem to like cookies so much, how can we know it wasn't you?" Ariana looked away from the rest of them. "However, since I don't want to help the likes of her, I won't help in this investigation."

"Of course you won't, it's not like I was asking for your help, either," Francisca pouted, turning her head and crossing her arms but still looking in Ariana's direction.

"I think Ariana might have been on the right course, though," Yiesha agreed intelligently. "Allison does seem to like her sweets."

The group turned to face Allison. "Hey, come on, the icing on Francisca's cookies taste like crap!" she vindicated.

"You could have easily scraped it off," Francisca said, trying to find the culprit soon. "It's not so runny that it would enter the cookie."

"Who the heck scrapes icing off of cookies?" Allison demanded. "That's a total waste of a perfectly wonderful sugar rush, even if it tastes really bad!"

"Sugar rushes are fun~!" Felicity exclaimed.

Everyone had a look of 'should we accuse her, or not' before turning from Felicity to Louella. "Okay, so it seems that only a few of us have alibis. Now, we should go around and ask why they didn't steal the cookies. If they can't produce one, then we'll assume they took them."

By this point, Edwina decided she instead wanted to see if there were any new updates on Gillian's blog; reading most, if not all, of this girl's past entries made her pretty attached. She flipped open the lid of her laptop on her desk, and typed in the URL. Gillian's page materialized on the screen, and Edwina saw that there was indeed a new entry, from only about an hour ago. She clicked on the link to it.

'So I was just hanging out in my room, when suddenly I thought, 'Hey, wait a sec; If those three girls (I talked about them earlier, BTW) are going on a tour or something, I should probably tell them what I did five years ago.' So I called up Ariana and asked her what that one girl who was the oldest or something's phone number was. She told me and I dialed that number and she answered, and I told her all that really annoying stuff, and then she was just like, 'Don't you have counterpart stuff to do?' Counterpart stuff? What's that supposed to mean? Well, instead of getting annoyed, I lied and said I needed to be updating and stuff like that, blah blah blah, and then she hung up on me. Lol, teenagers are weird. Teens FTW. ' The entry read. Edwina adjusted her glasses. Had Tora been called by Gillian and not told anyone?

"Is that Gillian's blog?" Edwina jumped a little, before looking behind her rapidly to see who had spoken. It was Tora, who was looking over her shoulder and glancing at the computer monitor. Edwina could see Raelyn still reading the comic, laughing slightly every once in a while.

"Yeah," Edwina answered. "I've been reading a lot lately. She seems pretty cool."

"…Oh," Tora said after a pause, with a look that seemed like she was considering saying something but disregarding it. She shot a quick look to Raelyn. "I think, maybe if we were to take off the entries with the Russian woman, then Raelyn could read the blog and not seem as scared, knowing that most of these people are nice."

"There aren't many posts about her," Edwina said. "It's pretty easy to guess why, though. And the posts that do have her mentioned don't call her by her name very often."

"So what do they say instead?" Tora wondered.

"'That creepy chick', 'She-who-shall-not-be-named', 'You-know-who', stuff like that," Edwina responded.

"That's what I thought," Tora said. Behind her, Edwina could hear Raelyn lay down the notebook and mutter, "I'm done…"

"Okay," Edwina said, getting up from her desk and closing the lid of her laptop. She approached Raelyn, and took away the comic. "What did you think?"

"I thought it was really funny," Raelyn said, smiling slightly. "I'm glad I could read it."

"I'm glad, too," Edwina said with a warm smile as she put the notebook back into a drawer on her shelf.

Maybe things were looking up for Raelyn now. That's what Edwina hoped. She seemed to be getting better day by day, and eventually maybe someday she'd be back to normal.

"So, the whole plan we have about the countries…" Raelyn said after a while longer.

"It's happening tomorrow, at around twelve or so," Edwina recapped. "We're going to ride our bikes up to the post office, and Ariana, Felicity, and Allison are going to take us to the airport from there."

"Who's driving?" Tora asked. Edwina could tell she asked because Felicity and Allison's counterparts were somewhat notorious for their bad (or at least hectic) driving.

"I don't know, but knowing Ariana's personality, she probably wouldn't let Felicity or Allison drive," Edwina replied, laughing a little bit in her head.

"I can't wait," Raelyn said unenthusiastically, staring out Tora's bedroom window. Edwina frowned.

"Well, now what does everyone want to do?" Edwina asked, trying to change the subject.

"Let's watch a movie," Tora suggested.

"That sounds fun," Raelyn noted.

"Okay," Edwina said, a slight smile on her face.

**I'm really sorry for the late update for a short chapter! I felt bad that I was taking so long to upload this, so I just reached a fairly good stopping point so everyone wouldn't stop reading or think I was done with the FanFiction. It's just that my science teacher STILL gives us tons of homework (that I barely understand and mostly guess on), I've been writing a Holiday FanFiction for my sister, I've been going to bed earlier because I'm starting to get kind of sleep-deprived, and I've been too busy with other things (AKA Watching YouTube videos, playing video games, and goofing off). So, yeah.**

**Well, I guess it's safe for me to say the next chapter will be substantially longer than this one, since now we've gotten to the main plot of the FanFiction, and I have a sort of 'drive' to finish this story off so I can have the rest of the school year to myself and not have to worry about writing FanFictions. It's not that I've stopped liking to write them per say, but I really can't focus on schoolwork and FanFictions at the same time, so maybe I'll work something out when summer comes so I can maybe write another spinoff. It's extremely unlikely, but still. **

**Anyway, I'll be seeing you next time I update, which should be happening an about a month or so, depending on how I feel about writing after the holidays are over. Chances are, I'll be too busy messing around with the stuff I'll get to remember I have to write a FanFiction, so… Maybe two or three months? Sorry, but I think I've developed a list of priorities, and 'Finishing my Fanfic' has been getting lower and lower on that list lately. **

**Whatever, I hope to see you all here next time for another exciting installment of….**

**This kitty face! :3!**

**~Next time on 'Kitty face':~**

**:3**

**~Come back next month to see if the kitty face (:3) will fall into the lion smile icon's (it's an angry Cat Smile, Fanfiction doesn't show the sideways V icon), or if it will find out about the lion smile's masquerade and live with the Look of Disapproval icon while it continues to try and repossess its house where his old friend who had gotten sick and died, the Shock Face icon, is buried under the tree that looks mysteriously like the Heart Icon~**


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